After a few consultations and a weekend of pondering the future, the Yankees and A-Rod announced that the Yanks’ third baseman will undergo hip surgery on Monday to correct a torn labrum. A-Rod will be out six-to-nine weeks and will need more invasive surgery after the season is over.
Joe Lapoint has more:
The procedure will correct a torn labrum and will address some of the underlying bone irregularity in the hip, Dr. Marc Philippon said in a conference call, but Rodriguez will probably need more extensive surgery after the season.
Under the best-case scenario, that would mean that Rodriguez could return to the Yankees by early May and miss about a month of the six-month season.
The option chosen on Sunday is the middle alternative that was discussed over the weekend by Rodriguez, the team and the doctor. At first, the Yankees and Rodriguez hoped he could start the season following the draining last week of a cyst caused by a torn labrum.
But that option quickly was dismissed. The most aggressive correction would have been to undergo more extensive surgery to correct the underlying cause of the problem, but that likely would have kept Rodriguez idle for 12 to 16 weeks, Dr. Philippon said.
This hybrid option — what one source called “using a nail instead of a steel girder” to fix A-Rod’s balky hip — came to light last night. From that point on, it was all but inevitable that A-Rod and the Yanks would choose this option. It allows the Yanks to get A-Rod at or near full strength for five months of the season, and while they have big shoes to fill for April, they have the pitching to weather this storm.
In the end, the original ESPN Deportes report, pegging A-Rod’s DL stint at ten weeks, ended up being on the mark after all. Get ready for far too much of Cody Ransom.
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