Carlos Beltran To Start Running Monday...Hopefully

David Lennon at Newsday has a good post about Carlos Beltran and his cranky knee. As being reported by Lennon, Beltran is expected to start running this Monday. The problem is, Beltran does not seem to be out of the woods yet.

Beltran reportedly is still feeling pain, and is wearing a brace on his knee since his last visit with his doctor in Colorado.

If Beltran is not showing improvement, microfracture surgery is still a strong possibility. This procedure consists of making many tiny holes in the joint so the resulting blood flow and clotting creates a substitute for the missing cartilage. Athletes who have had this surgery do have a reduction in pain, and although they are able to resume their careers, it has been found that their agility in moving side-to-side is hindered. If that is the case, that would hurt Beltran's career immensely. He relies on his quickness to get to balls hit into the gap, let alone rounding the bases.

Beltran's doctor reported that one of the bruises in his knee had improved while another remained the same.

Beltran has had issues with his knee for years, and has had surgery in the past. The concern here is that will he be able to step on a ball field again, and if he does, will he only be shadow of his former All Star self?

In Lennon's story, he quotes Dr. Ronald Grelsame, knee surgeon and chief of patellofemoral reconstruction at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan as saying:

"The first thing to make clear is that a bruise does not imply trauma. Number two, the image that you see does not correlate well with how a patient feels in general. So although it's nice to follow an MRI, it doesn't tell you how a person is feeling, and therefore is not in and of itself going to determine what a person can or cannot do.

"At the end of the day, most health professionals are going to go by what the patient is telling them. So if Beltran says, 'I feel pretty good,' then chances are the doctors looking after him are going to say, 'If you can swing a bat and you can run, then by all means, do it.' The fact that the MRI is imperfect suggests that he may one day have a relapse. But who knows when that will come. A relapse could be in 10 years."

As with any injury, it will be up to Beltran to explain to the doctor's how he really feels, and if he can manage the pain he is in or not. If not, microfracture surgery is very likely. If he can manage the pain, we hopefully will see him patrolling CF in a few months.

I can't say I am overly excited about what I am reading and reading into about Beltran. The Mets need him. Angel Pagan is a nice option as a back-up, but Pagan never will be what Carlos Beltran is: an All Star, a Gold Glove CF, a HR and RBI man, and one who has performed well in the clutch.

Let's just hope and pray that Beltran is able to recover and return to the Mets.