It appears as if the Phillies are going to have to lean on minor-league lifer Carlos Ruiz and backup Sal Fasano a little more heavily than originally planned. The reason: an MRI revealed that Mike Lieberthal is pretty banged up.
According to the Phillies, an MRI on Lieberthal's injured left knee, suffered when he was hit by a pitch on May 4 from the Braves' John Thomson, confirmed a significant bone bruise and stable fracture of the bone. Fortunately for Lieberthal, all muscle, tendons and ligaments are in good shape. That's especially revealing since it was the ACL tear of Lieberthal's right knee that caused him to miss almost all of the 2001 season, and struggle through 2002.
Of course Lieberthal's age (he's 34, which, of course, is ancient) doesn't help him much either. Injury or not, Lieberthal's future as a catcher in the big leagues is definitely limited. Sure, he's incredibly fit thanks to a stringent workout plan and plenty of yoga, but the numbers don't lie. As catchers age and continue to squat behind the plate where they are prone to everyday dings, aches and pains, their production falls off. It's just an undeniable fact.
So while Lieberthal rejoins the team to continue his rehab plan with the hope of returning to the lineup in two more weeks, the fact is that the Phillies have a catching problem. Though the fans and certain elements of the local media are much less enamored of the two-time All-Star than his teammates, Lieberthal has always received high marks as a guy who always straps it on and plays through a lot of injuries. After his potentially career-ending injury suffered in Arizona in May of 2001, Lieberthal had never been on the disabled list until now.
Dependable, every day catchers do not grow on trees.
Neither do popular, dependable teammates. Lieberthal has always been a favorite of his teammates as well as a go-to guy for the writers, providing lots of straightforward answers and insight to the story behind the story. Plus, his teammates greatly admired the way Lieberthal took all of the slings and arrows -- fairly or unfairly -- sometimes secretly cast his way by former manager Larry Bowa and his pitching coach Joe Kerrigan in a not-so secret attempt to undermine and make a scapegoat out of the veteran.
Still, Lieberthal's skills have waned even though not as dramatically as some have advertised. In a perfect world, Lieberthal would be a perfect part-time catcher who primarily faced lefties and a few tough righties... that is if the Phillies had options other than Fasano or Ruiz.
Though popular with a little bit of power, Fasano's defensive skills aren't that great -- base runners have an easy time when he's behind the plate. Nor can he hit inside pitches. Ruiz, 27, was slow to develop but has been a decent hitter since his breakout season in 2004 for Double-A Reading. Plus, unlike Fasano, Ruiz is good defensively with a really strong arm. At the very least, Ruiz could be a capable backup Major League catcher for a few years.
Now all the Phillies need for 2006 and beyond is a solid catcher who can play at least 120 games, hit a little bit, and not carry a $7.5 million per season price tag. Then again, doesn't every team?