Braves catcher Christian Bethancourt had arthroscopic surgery to repair torn meniscus in his left knee.
The rehabilitation period for the procedure is relatively brief and Bethancourt is expected to be cleared for workouts by late November.
Bethancourt posted photos of his wrapped knee post-surgery on his Instagram page and wrote: “Not the best way to start the offseason but oh well I guess this is life .. Last night I had surgery on my left knee to repair one of my meniscus .. Thank God everything went well and will be back to work in less then 2 months.”
Team officials didn’t mention the procedure Monday during an end-of-season interview with several media members, when Braves president of baseball operations said of the team’s catching situation: “Catching is going to be an interesting dynamic going forward. We absolutely love the skill set of Bethancourt. It’s been a slow developing process…. I think with all the young pitching, now you’ve got a young catcher, it just didn’t work out the way we had hoped, especially the first six, eight weeks. We were very fortunate to have A.J. (Pierzynski). I think (Pierzynski) was a positive for our young pitchers, he offensively played very well, and I think he’s certainly a guy that we’re going to consider bringing back next year.
“If we could have stayed the course with Bethancourt, we would have sort of a better feel for where he’s at. There’s no denying the level of talent, the level of skill that he does possess. It’s a matter of, at some point he’s got to seize it.”
