The Texas Rangers announced starting pitcher Yu Darvish will undergo Tommy John surgery on his right elbow next week and will miss the entire 2015 season.
Dr. James Andrews is set to perform the surgery Tuesday, T.R. Sullivan of the team’s official site reported. Darvish felt discomfort in his triceps during his only spring training appearance and was left with two options after further evaluation, per Sullivan: surgery or rest.
“[Rest] would have kept him sidelined for at least four months with no guarantee that it would fix the problem,” Sullivan wrote, adding that Andrews would perform the surgery in Pensacola, Florida.
Jon Heyman of CBS Sports passed along comments from the ace last week, as he talked about the potential disappointment of missing an entire year: “I will be disappointed if I have to miss the season, but I want to look at all my options, including getting a second opinion, before I make a final decision.”
Aaron Gleeman of Hardball Talk noted that Darvish ended up getting three separate opinions about the best route to take; all of them recommended surgery.
So that’s what Darvish will do. If everything goes smoothly during the operation and the ensuing rehab process, there’s a good chance he’ll be available early in the 2016 campaign.
It’s obviously a significant setback for the Rangers rotation. The 28-year-old right-hander owns a 3.27 ERA and 1.20 WHIP in 83 career starts over three seasons. He’s also punched out an eye-popping 680 batters in 545.1 innings.
Derek Holland, Yovani Gallardo and Colby Lewis will lead the Texas rotation with Darvish out of the picture.
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