Russell Martin Done for the Season?

After watching the play at the plate during the second inning of Tuesday night’s game when Russell Martin injured himself, I wasn’t that concerned.  It just didn’t look that bad.  And in talking to Russell after the game, he also didn’t seem that concerned about the play or the injury.

“[The play] looked like it was going to be bang, bang,” said Martin. ”I was indecisive on whether to hit him…I don’t want to hit the catcher when he doesn’t have the ball in his hand.  It was so bang, bang that it caught me in-between.”

Martin went on to talk about how his hip was feeling after the game.  “I still have some mobility, but obviously I don’t have all of it.  We’ll get the MRI tomorrow and we’ll see what happens.  I know I can play with this, it’s just whether or not, if I play with it, is it going to get worse?  Those are the types of things that I’m worried about.”

Unfortunately, the MRI results showed a torn labrum in his hip, and Martin is off to the disabled list.  But the long-term impact could be even more devastating for the Dodgers this season.

Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts spoke with injury expert Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus who noted that Martin is likely done for the season and could need surgery with a three to four-month recovery time.  That would leave the Dodgers with the offensively underwhelming catching duo of Brad Ausmus and A.J. Ellis.  It also makes Ned Colletti’s decision on what to do with Martin in 2011 that much more difficult.

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In other news, Randy Rosetta of The Advocate newspaper of Baton Rouge, LA notes that first round draft pick Zach Lee remains unsigned by the Dodgers and is currently on campus as a member of the LSU football team, where he is projected to be a future quarterback.  From the article:

“‘I think his want to be a college student and to play both championship football and baseball is still (at the) forefront there,’ [LSU head football coach Les] Miles said after he dramatically leaned over and knocked on the nearest wood he could find.”

Now the Dodgers have yet to make an official offer, but they have until August 16th to sign Lee.  The newspaper notes that Lee could theoretically sign with the Dodgers and still play football, but definitely not baseball.  I just don’t see Ned going down that route, given how expensive it’s going to be for the Dodgers to sign the kid.  And given the radio silence from all parties on contract negotiations, I don’t have much faith this deal is going to get done by the deadline (cue the conspiracy theorists who claim the Dodgers only drafted Lee because they knew he was unsignable…something GM Ned Colletti adamantly denies).

Now we wait…

Photo Credit: JonSooHoo/LA Dodgers 2010