A greater matter of concern is Beltran's situation. He played through a knee injury that has been diagnosed as a bruise to his tibial plateau. That's the 'top' of the bone, where most would say it's the knee, and where the load from the body is born. Yes, that means that the cushioning inside failed for some reason, and that the bruise was probably caused by the femur slamming into it enough to cause damage. That's very bad in the long term, especially if Beltran's meniscus has a deficit. (I couldn't find if he's had a previous meniscectomy, though I'm sure you'll chirp in comments.) If there's no cushioning, this will continue to be a problem, with grinding as well as the occasional traumatic injury such as a bruise or worse, a fracture. I think that we have to take a year or two off the back end of Beltran's career unless he finds something like Synvisc or microfracture to reduce some of the damage. For now, he'll miss a couple of games after a cortisone injection, but the team thinks he'll be able to avoid the DL.
