St. Louis Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras will miss six to eight weeks with a broken arm he suffered in a freak accident from a catcher’s interference.
In the top of the second inning, J.D. Martinez was at the plate for the New York Mets when he swung at an 85 mph breaking ball from Miles Mikolas.
In his swing, though, Martinez’s bat hit Contreras near the wrist, and judging by Contreras’ reaction, it was clear that something was seriously wrong.
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Contreras rolled around in pain behind the plate, but when he stood up holding his arm, he began screaming in pain.
Manager Oliver Marmol and a trainer came out to check on him, but it was obvious he would not be staying in the game.
X-rays later revealed a fracture in Contreras’ left forearm.
“It was numb, and I knew it wasn’t right. Once I tried to do some motion stuff, there was some cracking in [the arm] and I knew it was bad,” he said after the game.
“So right now I mean, I’m in pain pretty good, but I’m really upset missing. I know that it’s going to be tough for me to watch the games and not out there with the guys, but I’m going to do my best to stay present, pick each other up and cheer for them because that’s the best thing I can do.”
“I hit meat,” Martinez said. “I felt like I hit meat. I didn’t hit like just like a glove where you kind of just point back to catcher, it was just solid. I was like, dude, I hit him good. … I felt terrible.”
MLB.com notes that Contreras has been setting up closer to the batter behind the plate to improve his defense – while a good strategy for framing pitches, it ultimately comes with quite a cost.
“It’s a huge risk, and it was talked about in the offseason and a topic in discussion because there were more [catcher’s interference calls], because they are evaluated on framing,” Marmol said. “The closer they’re able to get to the hitter to get that low pitch, it’s definitely a topic of conversation. The risk is high, and we just experienced it.”
To make matters worse, Martinez was awarded first base.
Contreras had doubled in the first inning, when St. Louis scored three runs, but the Mets eventually won, 7-5.
He is hitting .280 with six homers and 12 RBIs. The 31-year-old is in the second year of a five-year, $87.5 million contract.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
