JULY 15: Karns will, in fact, have surgery on Wednesday to relieve thoracic outlet syndrome, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan tweets. Karns will miss the rest of the season.
JULY 7: The Royals may go without righty Nate Karns for the rest of the year, per manager Ned Yost. The skipper says that it’s “looking more and more like” Karns will require thoracic outlet surgery, as Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star reports.
Karns gave the Royals 45 1/3 innings of 4.17 ERA pitching before hitting the shelf with forearm discomfort after his start on May 19th. With 51 strikeouts against just 13 walks over that span, there was quite a lot of optimism that he might be even more effective upon returning from what was expected to be a brief spell on the DL.
The forearm troubles, though, failed to improve as expected. A connection to thoracic outlet syndrome was eventually drawn. And now, it seem, a surgical option is squarely on the table.
If Karns does go under the knife, it’d surely end his 2017 season, though that doesn’t mean the organization wouldn’t still see him as a future contributor. The 29-year-old, acquired over the winter for Jarrod Dyson, will be eligible for arbitration for the first time this fall.
Even if Karns is able to avoid a procedure and begin moving toward a return this year, it will obviously be tough for Kansas City to expect much from him the rest of the way. That helps explain the team’s reported interest in pursuing a rental starter at the deadline.
“If Karns does go under the knife, it’d surely end his 2018 season, though that doesn’t mean the organization wouldn’t still see him as a future contributor.”
It’ll end his 2018 season as well as the rest of 2017? I wasn’t aware that TOS had an 18 month recovery………
It’s worse than tommy john surgery
Not true. Recovery time is in the neighborhood of 6 months. Must just be a typo in the article.
Harvey had it last year
Harvey isn’t having a good year and he’s currently on the DL.
Yeah they probably just mean end his 2017 season.
Honestly, I have no clue why KC would go for it. Yes- they could get hot and make it to the playoffs but they don’t really have the prospects to go get a reliable starter to help them through the playoffs, as I don’t have a ton of faith in Vargas’ ability to keep it up for a whole season. They might be able to get a guy like Hellickson or something but that wouldn’t be much help. Even if they make the playoffs, the AL isnt just controlled by 1 powerhouse they would have to upset- HOU, BOS, NYY and to an extent CLE are all insanely deep teams and the chances of them pulling that off are the same as Jose Altuve hitting a growth spurt.
On top of all of that- they lose Moose, Cain, Hosmer, Vargas, Escobar and probably Minor at seasons end. If they traded for a starter they will have even less prospects who could be potential replacements. And as a small market team- next to zero chance of re-signing even half of them.
Sell pieces now so you have the prospects to be good by 2019 as opposed to getting a wild card in 2017 an not getting another shot until 2025.
Yeah, I have no idea why the Royals would go for it. I mean, they are only 2 games back of the division and 1/2 a game back of the wildcard.
Your post is absolutely incorrect on so many levels. Yes, Cain, Hosmer, Moustakas, Escobar and Vargas are all free agents at the years end. Your post assumes that the Royals will retain none of these. I would wager they at least keep one, if not two, of the soon to be free agents. Probably Moustakas. . .
Further, selling now is betting that the returns would be that of the Greinke trade. While that would be great, there is no guarantee that the trade would reap the same benefits as the Greinke trade. I couldn’t imagine the fan reaction to the team selling at this point. Selling now would not get them back into a playoff run in 2019. Selling now might make the Royals a .500 team in the 2020 season, but again, the trade only brought in 2 pieces directly (Cain and Escobar) and 2 pieces indirectly(Shields and Davis via the Myers/Odorizzi trade). Selling now would guarantee this year, and last year, to be a waste as I don’t see the Royals being in a position to make another post season run, regardless of whether they sell now, for another 4 years.
Wait, this is a 18 months recovery?
This is a pretty “Hip” surgery these days. It’s as about “hip” as a fancy beard and a shaved on the side and long on the top haircut.
I’d say the trade will end up being pretty even, as Dyson will be gone after this season, and now KC may not get Karns for about a year. KC probably still has the better chance of coming out on top, but it seems like a pretty even trade to me.