Victor Martinez undergoes microfracture surgery: injury worse than expected

Not only that, but a player at his age may have trouble being ready at the beginning of next year. Ugh.

cybernetic leg on him, it’s a risky operation, but it’s worth it!

Microfracture is what Carlos Guillen had too as its performed when the meniscus tissue is worn or damaged.
It’ll be non-weight bearing for a couple months, typically (and takes about a year to fully rehab alone). The ACL & MCL repairs to follow are also a long recovery, but can vary depending on the type of repair the use (cadaver, patellar, etc.) from 9-24 months to reach full strength. Best bet for VMart is 2013 at the soonest and I would doubt catching is in his future considering his age.
Unfortunately, I’ve had all these surgeries as well (four knee surgeries total). I can tell you that the ACL/PCL repairs are not as painful, but one is never the same. It takes about 2 years for the patellar or hamstring repairs to regain full strength (which is never as strong as the original). Cadaver or artifical are faster, but risk rejection and/or further injury.
The microfracture is a frustrating process…they drill holes in the bone surface to draw blood & marrow, which fills in for the lost or worn meniscus tissues. You can’t put any weight on it for 2-3 months, depending on the size of the damaged tissues and you have a machine that moves your leg about 8-10 hours/per day to prevent scar buildup. The swelling is pretty severe & everything gets weak over time…it takes a long time to rehab & get strong again.
As mentioned above, 1 year would be the MINIMUM that I would expect him back. It could be longer than that. In the long run, he’s doomed to osteoarthritis, as well, but that won’t be an issue for several years, likely after his playing career is over.

As far as I see it, this just pushes back his recovery time.

Could the guy be any more pessimistic about the deal? His stuff is becoming unreadable.

It’s still mostly experimental and is pretty rare in non-athletic populations. Results are mixed, so hopefully V-Mart is one of the lucky ones that it pays off for.

I just remembered I sent a fan letter to John Chancellor once.

Good insight. I think they may have expected that more could have been wrong. We all would have been okay this year with a one-year replacement, unless Victor wasn’t healthy next year and ends up pulling a Carlos. Then we would have wished we signed Prince when he was killing us in Texas. I think Fielder covers them if Victor becomes all but done, but nobody can know what will happen with Victor. Prince is a heckuva insurance policy against it though.

Remember how lauded the Tigers were last year with his signing? When Adam Dunn and Jason Werth ended up being no more than, well, Adam Dunn and Jason Werth, or as Dan Dickerson called him, a “strike out machine,” the Tigers were applauded for making such a great signing in Victor. I want him back bad. More than proving himself as a great player, his clubhouse attitude and his little boy made cheering for the Tigers a little more extra fun. We would all love to see him back and healthy.

Should we lose V-Mart permanently, we should use all of that money on a DH/1B type (sarcasm)! We could just DH Miggy most of the time.

I would still welcome that top of the lineup help we have been needing… maybe it would come in the form of a LF or 2B?

I mean, he’s got his own Wikipedia page.