Well, upon closer inspection, that bullet that we thought we had dodged ended up clipping us after all, Birdland. When Manny Machado collapsed at home plate following a swing in the team’s 11-3 win over New York on August 11, everyone immediately thought the worst.
However, unlike in 2013 when Machado injured his (other) knee, there was no cart involved this time, and Manny was helped off the field limping. Following that same game, he was in the handshake line. We saw him smiling and laughing with his teammates, and at times even looking perfectly fine, jumping and celebrating with them.
While it still seemed unlikely that a 15-day DL stint would be all the recovery time Manny would need, O’s fans were still generally optimistic that the young phenom would be able to return in time to help for the postseason. A couple weeks of tuning up to finish the regular season, and then he’d be ready to be himself for the playoff run.
Unfortunately, that will not be the case, as news surfaced Friday evening that Machado feels his knee will not heal sufficiently with rest and rehab, and will instead have season-ending surgery on it.
Tim Brown at Yahoo! sports reported the news first. Roch Kubatko has more:
Los Angeles orthopedic surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache likely would perform the surgery on Machado. He handled the procedure on Machado’s left knee in October.
Brown also tweeted that a “small abnormality” found in the left knee also exists in the right knee, and it will be fixed during the surgery.
Update: I received confirmation that Machado has made a “preliminary” decision to undergo knee surgery after consulting with doctors. Machado apparently doesn’t believe the knee would heal sufficiently through rest and rehabilitation.
Executive vice president Dan Duquette will address the media at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
In Machado’s absence, Chris Davis has been handling duties at third base (adequately, I might add), with Steve Pearce taking over at first. While it’s possible that the team may try to acquire another infielder that has passed through waivers, the bottom line is that Machado is a huge loss to this team.
Of course, it’s still entirely possible that they can overcome his absence and continue to play amazing baseball now and through October.
Of course, it’s still entirely possible that they can overcome his absence and continue to play amazing baseball now and through October.
Of course, it’s still entirely possible…
Sorry…maybe if I type it enough times, I’ll start to believe it.
In all seriousness, we thought the same thing when Matt Wieters went down for the season. This O’s squad is a TEAM and I am confident that they will rise up and not let this injury – or any injury – define their season. After all, they ARE 26-18 without Machado this season.
It’s still just extremely frustrating and disheartening to lose a guy like Manny during what seems to be such a magical season. The idea of Machado handling duties at the hot corner this October and showing off in front of national audiences, helping to erase the false image they have of him as a poor sport, spoiled child due to one ugly incident that got more publicity than all of his amazing plays combined was music to the ears of O’s faithful.
Alas, that won’t be the case – at least not this October.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go look at the standings again to try to cheer myself up.
Sigh. See you in 2015, Manuel.
Next Oriole up.
Here are some Manny GIFs (various sources, including Gordon Dixon, Deadspin, and Baltimore Sports Report):
