What Carlos Ruiz’s Injury Means for Chooch and the Team

The disaster that is the 2012 Phillies season now has one fewer bright spot as the team has announced that Carlos Ruiz has been placed on the 15-day disabled list as he deals with planar fasciitis. Worse still is that he’s expected to be out anywhere from four to six weeks.

According to a team statement, an MRI revealed a partial tear of the plantar fascia in Ruiz’s left foot. In layman’s terms, there was a small tear in the sheath of connective tissue that covers the bottom of the foot from heel to toe.

The good news is that it was only a partial tear: the plantar fascia is used in pretty much everything the human body does during a baseball game and the injury, if left untreated, would just get worse and could become a more severe tear. The usual course of action is a mix of ultrasound treatment and a stretching and strengthening regimen of the foot and ankle muscles, and surgery is considered a last resort after conservative treatment. That’s good, I guess.

It’s a total bummer of an injury for the team: Chooch’s monster year was one of the only things that was going right in 2012. His  .335/.339/.559 slash-line is the best of any catcher in the majors and good for fourth place in the running for the batting title, which Carlos will be unable to compete for because of all the plate appearances he will be missing.

It’s a huge blow to the morale of the team and the certainly of the fanbase because it’s yet another sign that the 2012 campaign is over. However, the silver lining here is that the Carlos and the team have plenty of time to take the conservative approach to an injury that would get progressively worse if left untreated. In light of Ryan Howard’s injury situation last year, it’s not unrealistic to imagine the team and/or player rushing things to get back in action had the Phils been in contention.

If nothing else, we’ll get a chance to find out if Erik Kratz is the heir apparent to Brian Schneider over these last two months.