Agent: DeRosa has wrist surgery, set for spring
ST. LOUIS — Mark DeRosa, the super-utility fielder who became the St. Louis Cardinals starting third baseman this past season, underwent wrist surgery Monday to repair a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist, an official with DeRosa’s agent’s office confirmed this afternoon. The surgery was performed Monday in Atlanta by hand surgery Dr. Gary Lourie.
DeRosa finished the season with the Cardinals but is a free agent this winter.
A spokesman with DeRosa’s agent’s office said that the doctor told them, in a statement, that DeRosa should be ready for baseball activities before the start of spring training.
DeRosa injured the wrist only a few days after arriving in St. Louis via trade with Cleveland. On a swing against Randy Johnson, DeRosa’s tendon sheath ruptured. He went on the disabled list, but returned to play through the injury all the way through the postseason. DeRosa mostly struggled offensively, even once saying that he felt like he wasn’t “a tough out” at times at the plate.
While DeRosa’s surgery is being covered by the Cardinals’ workers’ comp, his pending free agency gave him more latitude to select the surgeon and schedule the surgery. As recently as late last week, several Cardinals’ officials declined to say if they knew when DeRosa’s surgery was scheduled.
The Cardinals plan to go into 2010 with rookie David Freese having a chance to win the starting third base job. That doesn’t eliminate their interest in having DeRosa return, but it does limit the role DeRosa could see for himself. At the end of the season, he said he wanted to look for the best opportunity for playing time and for contending. The Chicago Cubs figured to make an overture toward DeRosa as a make-good for trading him to Cleveland before the 2009 season — a move general manager Jim Hendry conceded was a mistake.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
Crds should make every effort to get DeRosa….if for no other reason, that the cubs dont get him! He is a good player and can play most anywhere.
Mr. Goold,
I was wondering if you could clear something up for me. I am a physical therapy student and I have been confused ever since DeRosa’s injury was announced. I have looked through several books and searched the research for similar injuries as what was announced as a “torn tendon sheath”. Tenodn sheaths are basically glorified bursa sacs that do not have much of a function and are often released if there is a problem with the tendon gliding through the sheath. Listening to the description of his symptoms, it sounds more like he tore his TFCC- Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex, which basically keeps the radius and ulna together at the wrist. Can you confirm which injury he actually had? And, if it is a torn tendon sheath, could you say if it is a flexor tendon sheath or an extensor tendon sheath? Sorry, this is just something that has bugged me since the injury was announced.
Big Mistake not to resign him, Freese is still unproven, and lets face it Holliday isnt coming back, we gave away a lot of our future to get these two guys, and I dont give a flip what Duncan says, Chris Peres is a better pitcher than Jason Motte. DeRosa offers a lot of flexibility and on a team that is going to be econimically limited he will be cost effective
Here is a link to a description that in most ways fits the way the injury has been described to me and reported in our paper:
http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/handwristsurgery/g/ecutendon.htm
It has been likened to the injury David Ortiz had as well.
Sign him to play left. If Freese doesn’t work out, move DeRosa in to 3B. If Holliday does sign here, they’ll find a place for DeRosa to play. Maybe more than one place.
Must resign. No debate. Chemistry guy who will be out to prove himself in 2010. Huge error not resigning him, will lengthen Cardinals line-up from a hitting perspective and is the best talent with this much versatility that LaRussa, the king of exploiting versatility in his everyday line up, has ever had as a Cardinal manager. Think that its not important, go ask the Cubs how much he impacted team chemistry. If you don’t resign him and Holliday leaves you have gotten nothing for all the potential talent you gave up for a failed playoff chance. Give him 6M for 3 yrs, and do it now. Must resign to be taken seriously next year whether they sign Holliday or not.
Thanks for the info DG. Clears things up a bit.
As a fan I’m all in for signing DeRosa to a Cardinal contract. I just hope Mark and the Cards can come to an agreement.
Management spent all season saying Freese was not ready for full time duty, then a few days after the season was over, they anoint him the heir at 3rd. Why didn’t they just keep quiet, sign DeRosa, and let the chips fall in Spring Training? DeRosa has more incentive to look for the promise of full-time position now, and we still don’t know about Freese in the bigs. I hope they get Mark back; he is a tough, Cardinals-style player who can do a lot of good for the team
Is Derosa a type A or type B FA? If the cubs are that interested, shouldn’t we offer him Arbitration to get an extra draft pick? We did give up a lot for him.