Shohei Ohtani will have Tommy John surgery after the season because everything is bad
The Angels delayed the inevitable, and now the time has come.
Update: Ohtani is now confirmed to have Tommy John surgery, which will take place the week after the season ends. After originally looking like a sure thing to happen earlier in September, the two-way star decided to finish out his season as a hitter and then make his final decision.
So here it is. Not the way anyone wanted to see his rookie season end, but hopefully he’ll be just as talented on both sides of the ball when he comes back from this as he was for most of the year.
Update on Shohei Ohtani:
— Angels (@Angels) September 25, 2018
Shohei Ohtani will undergo UCL reconstruction surgery during the first week of the off-season. The procedure will be performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles. Additional information will be provided when appropriate.
After attempting to fend off the inevitable for a few months, the Angels announced today that Shohei Ohtani will most likely undergo Tommy John surgery to reconstruct his damaged UCL.
RHP/DH Shohei Ohtani underwent an MRI on his right elbow earlier today. The imaging revealed new damage to his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL). UCL reconstruction surgery is the recommended plan of care. Additional information will be provided when appropriate. #Angels
— Angels PR (@LAAngelsPR) September 5, 2018
Angels GM Billy Eppler says Shohei Ohtani has not yet committed to Tommy John surgery, says it's too soon to say when he might resume hitting next season.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) September 5, 2018
Surgery would mean he’ll miss the rest of this year, all of the 2019 season and possibly some of 2020 as well while he recovers. The upside is that this could also alter the course of his promising career and he signed a contract that severely undervalued his talents because he just wanted to play on an MLB team while he was in his prime.
Wait, I’m hearing from my assistant that is not actually an upside.
The Angels could have gone this route months ago when they originally shelved Ohtani as a pitcher and had him rehab his elbow rather than immediately opting for surgery. Instead, they brought him back as a batter and then as a pitcher, and his UCL deteriorated further and now needs surgery. Which they pretty much knew a few months back anyway.
So, instead of having him get surgery earlier and therefore allow him to start rehabbing earlier, the Angels instead went the wishful thinking route and hoped their newest star would imitate Masahiro Tanaka’s luck and not need surgery at all. Of course, Tanaka is currently the exception to “rehab over Tommy John” thinking rather than the rule, but it’s the Angels so they wanted to be naively optimistic. Even when it was clear ages ago they weren’t playing for anything this year and could pack it in for the season.
Either Ohtani was going to join Tanaka on the short list of pitchers able to completely avoid Tommy John after damaging their UCL in this way (unlikely) or he was going to hold on until next year’s Spring Training and then need surgery anyway (far more likely). So rather than allowing him to start rehabilitation earlier and possibly only miss 2019, the Angels waited based on the slimmest of chances that Ohtani would be one of the lucky ones and delayed the inevitable. Now, he’ll miss time in 2020 too.
They (and others) are rationalizing it by saying it’s still better than doing it next Spring. Which is technically correct but not completely sound logic based on this particular situation. In short, the Angels’ decision making struggles strikes again. We’ve been here before and we’ll be here again.
The Angels are bad and they should feel bad.
Hopefully Ohtani’s recovery goes exactly as planned with no setbacks and we get him back on Opening Day 2020. And that there is no deterioration in his skills after he returns. Hopefully.