The Twitter wire lit up on Sunday night after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a story that quoted Cardinals’ slugger Lance Berkman hinting that he would consider retirement if his Monday MRI reveals a torn ACL.
Berkman told Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
”If I’ve re-torn my ACL or something like that, I’d certainly get it fixed but you don’t know how psychologically you’re going to come back from something like that,” Berkman said. “I’m not talking from the standpoint of being scared of hurting it again. I’m talking about doing everything it takes to come back and play again at an elite level. I think that’s a legitimate question I’m going to have to answer if, in fact, it turns out to be something more serious than we hope that it is.”
Neither the Cardinals or Berkman have offered any hints as to the extent of Berkman’s latest injury, but it would make sense that if Berkman’s damage to his right meniscus is much more serious than expected, that retiring is an option, especially after already making two trips to the DL this season with preceding knee injuries.
The 36-year old is one of the best switch-hitters of all time, and broke out from a two-season slump in 2011, hitting 31 home runs and driving in 94 runs.
That led to a one-year, $12 million contact with the Cardinals, but he’s been able to play in just 13 games this season because of his injuries.
Berkman has a career slash line of .296/.409/.546 with 359 home runs over 14 seasons in the major leagues.
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