DETROIT >> Alex Avila’s been so beat up over his catching career that sometimes it’s hard to tell when he’s hurting and when he’s not.
His manager certainly had no inkling anything was wrong with him, beyond the forearm contusion that kept him out of Friday’s game.
Avila’s left knee, though, had been bothering him for weeks, and he finally got it checked out, an MRI revealing a loose body in the joint, an issue that could potentially keep him out until the second half of the season.
“It affects me getting out of a chair. It’s been pretty painful for a while, for the past few weeks,” Avila said Saturday morning, after he was placed on the 15-day disabled list.
“Some days it’s been difficult just to walk around and stuff like that, so I knew it was probably something a little more serious and basically I’ve been playing with it, some days I’m not sure how, but according to the doctor it wouldn’t be smart, I could probably do some more damage, so we’re going to take care of it.”
The results of Avila’s MRI will be sent to a knee specialist before the team settles on a course of action. If a scope is needed to remove the loose body – most often a bone chip or piece of cartilage – he could potentially be out six to eight weeks.
“We don’t know any type of timetable really. We’re trying to basically figure out the course of action right now,” Avila said. “But my expectation and my hope would be to be back and ready to go, good as new, for the second half. That would be my hope and I think that’s a pretty realistic possibility.”
The injury – unrelated, Avila believes, to the patellar tendinitis that impaired him as far back as 2011 – leaves a pair of youngsters in charge of the pitching staff. Rookie James McCann will get the bulk of the playing time in Avila’s absence, but last year’s backup, Bryan Holaday, was recalled from Toledo Saturday to play behind him.
The upside is that Holaday knows most of the pitchers on the staff relatively well.
“Yeah, it’s kind of a seamless transition that way. I haven’t gotten reports on Holaday. I know him pretty well, so it’s not that I’ve needed to get reports,” manager Brad Ausmus said, admitting the loss of Avila will be felt.
“It stings a lot, I would say. He’s really the starting catcher, he’s a left-handed bat in a right-handed lineup, and he’s got a ton of experience behind the plate.”
It came out of the blue for the manager, but that wasn’t necessarily a surprise.
“No, I’m not surprised. Alex is a tough kid,” Ausmus said. “I really didn’t know anything about it until yesterday during the game.”