Options Aren’t Pretty for Mueller’s Recovery

Imagine your reaction if one of the foremost orthopedic doctors in the country asked you to purposely break your chronically balky knee in a last-ditch attempt to generate cartilage growth.

Oh, and it would take two years to recover.

Bill Mueller doesn’t have to imagine it. Dr. Richard Steadman of Vail, Colo., examined his right knee and suggested a remedy that would effectively end the 35-year-old third baseman’s career.

“It was heartbreaking that he didn’t have the answer,” Mueller said. “It was very discouraging.”

After three surgeries on the knee, it has almost no cartilage left. So even when he heals from his surgery in May, it is doubtful that he will be able to play baseball.

He will continue daily treatment -- including walking in a swimming pool to reduce the weight he places on the knee. By the first week of July the knee should have healed from the surgery and doctors can evaluate the amount of cartilage left.

Options include cartilage replacement surgery and the radical surgery proposed by Steadman. Both procedures have low success rates.

“They really need to realign my leg by re-breaking it,” Mueller said. “But the cartilage might wear out as fast as it is generated.”

The loss of Mueller, who is in the first year of a two-year, $9.5-million contract, is a big blow to the Dodgers. The career .291 hitter got off to a hot start and tapered off when the knee began bothering him, batting .252 in 32 games.

The first player to replace him, rookie Willy Aybar, hit well until a recent slump. Defensively Aybar was below average and he was sent back to triple A last week. Cesar Izturis will be the third baseman most of the time, with Olmedo Saenz and Ramon Martinez playing there as well.

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Izturis will make his first start tonight at shortstop since last season and Rafael Furcal will get his third day off this season.

Manager Grady Little will make the move to get Saenz into the lineup at third base. Saenz is six for seven with two home runs against Pirates starter Zach Duke.

Although Saenz can also play first base, Nomar Garciaparra told Little that he doesn’t need time off right now.

“As long as he’s feeling good and getting hits, he’ll be in there,” Little said.

Garciaparra is two for three with a home run against Duke and Izturis is two for four. Furcal is one for six against the left-hander.

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The Hollywood Stars game is tonight at 5:15. Jimmy Kimmel, James Van Der Beek, Mia Hamm, Louis Gossett Jr., Carlos Mencia, Michael Clarke Duncan and Corbin Bernsen are among the celebrities scheduled to participate.... Tom Lasorda will be inducted into the Canadian Hall of Fame today. Lasorda pitched for the Montreal Royals, a Brooklyn Dodgers triple-A affiliate, for nine seasons and posted 107 victories.