An MRI revealed on Thursday that Astros catcher Jason Castro has a torn medial meniscus that will require surgery. The Astros catcher hurt himself by landing on first base awkwardly, with a little help from Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera, in a spring training game on Wednesday.
It’s unknown just how long the catcher will be out, as it depends on the severity of the meniscus tear and the doctors will only figure that out once they do the surgery. Small meniscus tears have kept players out for as little as two weeks in the past, a large one could see Castro sitting out a portion of the start of the season. He is flying back to Houston today to see the director of the Astros medical staff, Dr. David Lintner.
If Castro should be out for an extended period of time, the Astros will likely have to cobble together something at catcher out of J.R. Towles and Humberto Quintero. No offense to those two, but that something isn’t likely to benefit the team in the short-term.