Dan Wilson walks with only a slight limp and he feels no pain in his injured right knee.
“There’s no pain at all, and that surprises me a little bit,” Wilson said.
Still, the Mariners’ veteran catcher will undergo surgery on Friday to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament. He suffered the season-ending injury May 4 while running the bases against the Angels.
Wilson, who said over the winter that this might be his final season, said he hasn’t thought about his long-term future as a player.
“I’ll cross that bridge when I get there,” he said. “I haven’t thought about that much at this point. Friday’s on my mind right now. I want to get through the surgery and get back on my feet. I’m taking it piece by piece.”
Wilson said he was surprised at the severity of the injury, suffered when he planted his right foot and reversed direction to get back to first base.
“I knew something wasn’t right but there wasn’t a lot of pain,” he said. “When they told me upstairs that they thought it was my ACL, I was really surprised.”
Wilson re-joined the team this weekend, but he isn’t certain whether he will travel in the days and weeks after his surgery.
“I’m just going to see how it goes,” he said. “I don’t know what to expect because I’ve never had something like this.”
Wilson said he would like to continue helping Miguel Olivo, the Mariners’ 26-year-old starting catcher who has shown the need for an experienced tutor. Olivo had an 0-for-27 slump before getting an infield hit Sunday.
“I want to be here for him, and any way I can help him I want to be able to do that,” Wilson said. “It’s been a tough start for him, but I think he’s going to be all right.”
Direct from Texas: Rene Rivera showed up in the clubhouse Sunday morning with only his equipment bag and a few clothes in his suitcase.
The 21-year-old catcher made a fast, and frantic, journey from Frisco, Texas, after learning early Sunday morning that he had been called up to replace injured catcher Wiki Gonzalez.
Gonzalez suffered a strained left hamstring Saturday night and was placed on the 15-day disabled list.
Missions manager Dave Brundage told Rivera about 2 a.m. Sunday that he was being called up and he caught a 7:45 a.m. flight to Seattle, bringing only what he had packed for San Antonio’s brief trip to Frisco.
“I need to go shopping because I didn’t bring much with me, and they dress differently in Double-A,” said Rivera, who was a September callup to the Mariners last year.
He was surprised at being called up this time.
“I didn’t think they would call up somebody from San Antonio,” Rivera said.
Rivera was hitting .273 with six doubles, two homers and seven RBI in 26 games with San Antonio.
“The kid can catch,” said manager Mike Hargrove, who got a brief look at Rivera at spring training. “I don’t know that I saw enough at-bats to know what he can do with his bat. But I liked what I saw. I certainly will not be afraid to use him.”
Gonzalez, injured while he ran to first base Saturday, probably won’t be ready to return in 15 days.
Where’s Joel?: Officially, pitcher Joel Pineiro is a member of the Class AAA Tacoma Rainiers after the Mariners optioned him there on Saturday. Chances are good he’ll never set foot in Tacoma.
Even though the Mariners optioned Pineiro to the Rainiers in order to have him solve problems with his throwing mechanics, he will do that work in Seattle under the guidance of Mariners pitching coach Bryan Price.
He is not allowed to be on the Mariners’ bench during games, but he can work out with the team in the afternoon.
Left-handed reliever George Sherrill, called up from Tacoma to take Pineiro’s roster spot, joined the Mariners on Sunday.
On the mend: First baseman/DH Bucky Jacobsen was back at Safeco Field on Sunday, still recovering from his knee problems but feeling better than he has in months.
Jacobsen had surgery last September to repair a divot near his right kneecap but never recovered to the point that he could play during spring training. He had exploratory surgery on Friday, when doctors shaved down a raised area of cartilage at the site of the former surgery.
Dr. Larry Pedegana, the Mariners’ medical director, told Jacobsen he was encouraged that he could make a quick recovery.
“It was definitely a relief to hear Dr. Pedegana say he was happy with it, and that the healing process is going to be a lot less than the last surgery,” Jacobsen said. “He said I should be back in 4-6 weeks. I’m shooting for four weeks. I just want to play, I want to hit. I can’t stand watching baseball on TV and not being able to hit.”
Of note: As of Sunday afternoon, plenty of tickets remained for the M’s-Yankees series this week. There were 9,000 left for tonight’s game, 12,000 for Tuesday’s and 11,000 for Wednesday’s.
Kirby Arnold, Herald Writer
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