St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny voiced his frustrations Wednesday over the importance of players "being honest with us" about injuries and that he "can't read their minds."
His comments come on the heels of pitcher Alex Reyes being shelved for the season with a torn lat muscle and the return to the rotation for Carlos Martinez, which lasted just four innings.
Matheny said Reyes never told him that he wasn't feeling right after his final rehab outing. He also said Martinez, who was out a month because of a strained lat muscle, didn't let him know that he was worried about throwing too hard in the early innings against the Marlins on Tuesday.
"We are constantly reinforcing the importance of them being honest with us," Matheny told reporters. "There's nothing our medical team can do if our guys aren't giving honest answers. It's not like this is some great revelation. It's always being preached how important it is. If they don't give us all the information, then the odds of them getting back and staying healthy aren't going to be as high."
Reyes, widely regarded as the Cardinals' top prospect, pitched four innings in a 3-2 loss at Milwaukee on May 30. That was his first big league appearance after missing 22 months while recovering from Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm.
Reyes' velocity dropped in the fourth inning of that start, prompting the training staff to make a mound visit. He finished the inning with pitches back in the mid-to-upper 90 mph range, and he complained about extreme soreness around his lat following the game. He had to have surgery and is expected to make a full recovery and be ready for spring training.
In his return Tuesday, Martinez wasn't sharp while making his first start in four weeks since straining his right lat muscle in a May 8 loss to Minnesota. The right-hander threw 75 pitches in four innings but said Wednesday that he was "scared" to throw too hard until the fourth inning.
Matheny said he was unaware of that information.
"We go with the information they give us. We can't read their minds," Matheny said. "If they tell us they're good and that everything feels fine, at some point, that's what the bottom line is going to be. ...
"We can't keep them in an MRI tube all the time. We go with what they're telling us, what we see and how they're clinically measuring up. All those things were pointing in a good direction [for Martinez] and we go forward. ... We didn't see anything of concern except that he was way out of rhythm, and he's a rhythm pitcher."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.