May 7, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras (40) is checked on by a trainer and manager Oliver Marmol (37) after fracturing his left arm during the second inning against the New York Mets at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
MLB: New York Mets at St. Louis Cardinals
(St. Louis, MO) – It was a sickening injury.
Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras – one of the league’s best – had his arm broken Tuesday night in a rare play.
As Mets DH J.D. Martinez swung at a pitch, Contreras reached to catch it, and the bat made vicious contact with the catcher’s left arm.
“You are expecting to hit a ball and you hit an arm and you are like, ‘What is that?’” Martinez told reporters in the Busch Stadium clubhouse after the Mets picked up a 7-5 win. “I hit meat. I didn’t hit just a glove where you kind of just point back at the catcher. It was just solid. I hit him good. When I got to first base I felt terrible.”
Contreras had been hitting .280 with 6 HR and 12 RBI. He’s now expected to miss at least several weeks. In a brutal scene he clearly knew something was wrong and stayed on the ground for a while before being helped off the field.
“It was numb, and I knew it wasn’t right. Once I tried to do some motion stuff, there was some cracking in [the arm] and I knew it was bad,” the Cardinals catcher said after the game.
“So right now I mean, I’m in pain pretty good, but I’m really upset missing. I know that it’s going to be tough for me to watch the games and not out there with the guys, but I’m going to do my best to stay present, pick each other up and cheer for them because that’s the best thing I can do.”
Martinez was awarded first base as a result of catcher’s interference.
Some worry catcher’s interference will become more prominent as the baseball analytics community places additional focus on “pitch framing.”
That’s the ability some catchers have to receive pitches well in terms of getting a strike call, in terms of it being called a ball. Of course, that would no longer be a concern if robots were used to call balls and strikes.
