Henderson Alvarez Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

SEPT. 20: Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets that Alvarez had a biceps tenodesis procedure and an excision of a boney exostosis performed on his right shoulder today by Dr. James Andrews.

SEPT. 15: Athletics righty Henderson Alvarez will undergo arthroscopic shoulder surgery, MLB.com’s Jane Lee reports (Twitter links). It’s not yet clear what kind of time he’ll require to recover, as that will be dependent in part upon what needs to be fixed during the procedure.

It was clear already that Alvarez wouldn’t throw in 2016, but the news nevertheless represents another rough blow. The 26-year-old never quite made it onto the hill for the A’s this year despite coming tantalizingly close during his rehab work.

Alvarez did log 33 frames in the minors during his DL stint, which is more than he managed in 2015 for the Marlins. The shoulder surgery that ended his season then also led to a non-tender from Miami, with the A’s scooping Alvarez up for $4.25MM over the winter.

Unfortunately for both player and team, the bounceback effort fell short. While the results of the surgery will obviously play a significant role in determining Alvarez’s future, it already seems fair to expect that Oakland will not tender him a contract entering his final year of arbitration eligibility.

Teams will surely still show interest in taking a shot at a recovery from Alvarez, though perhaps they won’t be willing to stake quite as much guaranteed money. He’s obviously still quite young, and was posted a 187-inning, 2.65 ERA campaign in 2014 before the troubles began.