Cardinals catcher Tony Cruz played a month with forearm stress fracture

Yadier Molina returning from a sprained knee yesterday led to the Cardinals placing catcher Tony Cruz on the disabled list with a stress fracture in his right forearm. And as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post Dispatch reports, it turns out Cruz had been playing through the stress fracture for weeks and possibly as long as a month.

According to Goold an MRI exam and CT scan Monday revealed the stress fracture in the middle of his forearm ... and then Cruz still started at catcher on Tuesday and Wednesday, explaining:

There was a chance of an actual break. That was the risk I was taking. ... It was bothering me quite a bit and it’s a grind. I tried to hang in there as long as I could. I’d rather be out there with the guys. Hopefully this is what it takes to get better.

Asked about allowing Cruz to continue playing with the injury, manager Mike Matheny said:

We were told he’d be OK to play as long as we were real careful and we were aware of what was going on in there. We were careful.

Obviously the Molina injury left the Cardinals short-handed behind the plate, but to risk Cruz’s health like that certainly seems questionable. And it’s not like Cruz is a superstar player they absolutely needed in the lineup at all costs. He’s a 26-year-old with little big-league experience and a sub-.700 OPS between Double-A and Triple-A.

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