After acknowledging that he had to go under the knife, Tigers reliever Joel Zumaya went and had exploratory surgery performed on his elbow on Tuesday. The news, at least as far as I can tell, is fairly good:
Joel Zumaya Has Elbow Surgery
Kevin Rand, the Tigers’ head athletic trainer, said today that [Dr.] Andrews replaced the screw that had been surgically placed in Zumaya’s elbow after he broke the elbow as he threw a pitch last June.
“Dr. Andrews cleaned out the joint and (replaced) the screw, in case that was the cause of his pain,” Rand said. “Nothing was really determined about that.”
So Dr. Andrews replaced the screw in Zumaya’s elbow just in case, but outside of that, he didn’t see anything. He performed some routine maintenance, as it were, but there wasn’t anything wrong with the bones, muscles or ligaments, which is what a pitcher likes to hear.
So we’ll see. Andrews will re-evaluate Zumaya in about six weeks to check on his progress. It’s unlikely that Zumaya will be able to pitch again in 2011, but it isn’t entirely out of the question.
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