Doc: Reds, Price aren't giving you full Mesoraco story

Devin Mesoraco, we are told, has a "hip impingement."

A what?

A "femoroacetabular impingement," which could seriously impinge upon the Reds' ability to make you happy this summer. I didn't get that from the club. I found it on the website OrthoInfo:

"Bone spurs develop around the femoral head and/or along the acetabulum. The bone overgrowth causes the hip bones to hit against each other, rather than to move smoothly. Over time, this can result in the tearing of the labrum and breakdown of articular cartilage (osteoarthritis).

"Surgery can successfully reduce symptoms caused by impingement. Correcting the impingement can prevent future damage to the hip joint. However, not all of the damage can be completely fixed by surgery, especially if treatment has been put off and the damage is severe. It is possible that more problems may develop in the future."

Translation: If Mesoraco's impingement doesn't get better soon, with rest and treatment, he will need surgery. Surgery will end his season, and still might not fix the problem. Once impinged, always impinged? Uh-oh.

In surfing the 'Net and talking to those who know of such things, hip impingements aren't uncommon in baseball. Troy Tulowitzki has had one; so has Alex Rodriguez. Apparently, it's easily overcome if you're a fielder. If you're a catcher, constantly squatting, bending and rotating, it's hell on earth.

The Reds are hoping that an unspecified amount of rest will cure Mesoraco's impingement. The inflammation, the pain, the inability to do what a catcher does. They think/hope it won't take very long. That's why they haven't disabled him. I was told that surgery would be logical only after three or four weeks of little or no improvement.

Meantime, the Reds say Mesoraco is available to pinch hit. Except when he's not, such as Sunday, when he left the team in St. Louis for what the team said was a "family issue." The team said that Monday afternoon. On Sunday, when Mesoraco wasn't around, the team didn't say much of anything.

Before Monday's 6-1 win in Milwaukee, the Enquirer's C. Trent Rosecrans inquired again about Mesoraco's status. Let's just say Bryan Price was in no mood to elaborate.

I won't go into what went into the manager's six-minute, F-bomb stuffed, anti-media tirade. Price felt that the press knew too much of what was going on, when it came to roster moves and who was available to play and who was not. It could also have been that Price was feeling the heat of the current losing stretch. Normally, he's the most candid, congenial manager I've covered in 27 years here.

That said, Rosecrans was just doing his job. If Price has a problem with information being leaked, he needs to find the leaker and air that guy out.

But we digress.

This is a very big story being very underplayed, because that's how the Reds want it. Mesoraco is essential to who they want to be this year. He is a rising star with a growing clubhouse presence. That, and he bats cleanup.

Given that The Club's ability to win games is currently being impinged upon by its lousy offense, losing Mesoraco for the next five months would be devastating. And he just signed a four-year, $28 million contract.

Media heathens are lots of things, most of them unprintable. Doctors we ain't. Price said there were strategic reasons for not saying Mesoraco wasn't with the team Sunday.

That doesn't explain this: If it is known that three or four weeks of rest is advised before surgery is considered, why is Mesoraco still active and leaving the team half a player short?

Does GM Walt Jocketty think Mesoraco has magical healing ability? If Mesoraco pinch hits, even once, that starts the DL clock ticking all over again. There will be no retroactive time.

If the Reds keep losing, this story will grow, along with its evil twin, speculation. It could impinge upon what's actually occurring on the field.

So why not make things clear? If Bryan Price is asked to explain why he walked Jon Jay to load the bases for Yadier Molina, and why he allowed Homer Bailey to pitch to Matt Carpenter, why can't someone shed adequate light on the impingement thing, so as to not impinge upon the paying public's right to know what the heck is going on?