11:09pm: Haniger underwent a discectomy, which “removes part or the whole intervertebral disc,” Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times writes.
8:50pm: Mariners outfielder Mitch Haniger underwent surgery on Thursday, Jeff Passan of ESPN reports. It’s the second procedure Haniger has undergone since he had core surgery three weeks ago. It’s unclear when he’ll be able to come back, but there will be a significant delay to the start of his season, according to Passan.
Haniger was already set to miss a major chunk of time after his previous surgery. As of Jan. 23, he was supposed to sit out six to eight weeks, which would’ve kept him out for at least the beginning of the season. Last week, though, general manager Jerry Dipoto didn’t seem sure when the Mariners would get Haniger back, saying, “We have no expectation on his timeline until we actually see him live [at Spring Training].”
Dipoto didn’t rule out an early season return or a mid-year debut for Haniger, and now uncertainty continues to abound in his case. It’s awful news for Haniger, who already missed 99 games in 2019, as well as a Mariners team that will have to continue trudging on without arguably its best player.
While the 29-year-old Haniger wasn’t as productive in 2019 as he was during the previous two seasons, in which he posted star-caliber offensive production, he still put up above-average numbers at the plate. His batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage experienced precipitous drops, but Haniger’s .220/.314/.463 line in 283 plate appearances was nonetheless 6 percent better than the MLB mean, per FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric.
Had he gone through a healthy offseason, Haniger – who has three years of team control left – could have served as an appealing trade chip for the Mariners. That’s obviously not going to happen in the near future, though, and it’s now up in the air whether he’ll have much of a chance to rebuild his value before this July’s trade deadline.
This poor guy. Root for him to get healthy first. Baseball later.
Agreed
Should of traded the Haniger last year like I said. Now he ain’t worth squat.
I’d still want ATL to give up a couple of decent prospects for him. They have too many at the upper levels anyway, so why not invest in someone with some cheap control left that has proven at MLB level, when healthy? SEA shouldn’t trade him unless they get a decent pkg, which will be tough.
Thinking Jefrey Ramos or Justin Dean plus Chad Sobotka for Haniger.
I don’t hate the Braves, but man, their fans are lol
I’m also a Braves fan, and I don’t follow your logic here. First, this poor dude’s been so injured, it’s really tough to say how long it’ll take him to bounce back. Secondly, the OF is full this year with Ozuna; and next, Pache and Waters should be making the leap. Lastly, if they were to consolidate prospects, a 3B or quality SP would likely be of more immediate help.
They could of got a wicked good return
Apparently Dipoto’s crystal ball wasn’t working too well.
One might say his crystal ball was ruptured
Says Mr Hindsight
Should of lol
Life and baseball is full of could haves and should haves. Does it really matter now?
Agreed. It’s a shame that the Mariners didn’t trade him during the rebuild. Otherwise, all of the Mariners moves look great.
Should’ve bought Amazon and Microsoft shares 10-15 yrs ago too
Never understood why they wanted to keep him. He’s too old to be a factor when the mariners are good again. Get some value!
You need someone to sell tickets, right? I don’t totally believe that, but there’s some truth to it. Plus, we don’t know what value other teams were putting on him in offers.
Bust
Ahh nuts.
Nut*
Braves fans:
Lets get Haniger. Lets get Hamels
Derp Derp
Enjoy watching this team be out of the playoffs by May with their overrated pitching prospects.
He still has more balls than you’ll ever have, NOBumgarner.
Speaking of, how many base on balls will Anderson give up in AAA? Probably won’t even have the opportunity since he will likely be shelled and demoted to AA again. He will rightfully join his other overrated counterpart Wright in AA. Then again, this team has Fried and Faulty in the rotation. The Braves will likely be so desperate to replace them, they will call up one of the two prospects, only to get shelled again.
Meanwhile, Bryant and Arenado and Bumgarner are having good seasons.
Fried was better than bumgarner last season. Forgot about soroka? I love old bumgarner but he is not a top line pitcher anymore. Watch him get shelled now that he us no longer pitching in San Fran. Same lame attitude as always.
Glad to see you keep trollin’. Why you so butt hurt that they are going to overpay for a bad contract or Bryant? Still hurting they keep forwarding your intern application to the SPAM folder?
The only people trolling is the Braves organization. You would think they would try to redeem themselves from last year’s embarrassment by giving real fans something to cheer about. Getting Ozuna and Hamels is not it.
Are you a real fan? Lol
Gloom and doom, the world is ending. Braves will still be better than the diamondbacks and your man crush bumgarner.
The irony here is the champion of an aging 3rd starter is bashing some Braves fans for being excited about Hamels, himself an aging 3rd starter. Lol.
Unfortunately, Mitch Haniger may be a name many of us wont remember in ten years
You’re not gonna remember the name of a dude who ruptured a testicle and then rehabbed with the Modesto Nuts?
Any man should not be making any balls jokes here. Could easily be you that went through it. Think on that before making a joke about his issues. I would consider that an off limits area to joke on.
Balls jokes? Really?!?! You couldnt find a less histerical way to describe that?!?! ROFL! =’D
?
Best wishes to Mitch. Such an awful injury and a freak one too. I’m hoping he makes a full recovery and can get back to what he loves. I just can’t imagine the pain and frustration that he’s been going through. Hopefully this is his final surgery. Get well soon!
You have to believe this was only a partial discectomy as full removal of a disc requires fusion surgery ala Tiger Woods and he would most likely be ruled out for the season. Poor Mitch has had a rough go of it the past 9+ months. Ruptured testicle, sports hernia surgery and now back surgery…tough times in the Haniger household.
Don’t forget the fastball to the face before all of this too
Dorothy- don’t forget to add a 95 mph Jacob DeGrom fastball to the face in 2017. I don’t know if the sun got in his eyes or what but he took that pitch right in the mouth, it’s been a horrific 2 yr stretch for Haniger. He’s only been in the league for 2.5 seasons so he still has plenty of time to put this series of unfortunate events behind him. I’m hoping the Ms keep him.
Hope he can make it back to the player we saw a couple years ago. Looking like a tough road though.
“dont make fun”…people like findingnimmo are what is wrong with the world.
But one person tries to sensor speech before it even happens while the other evalutes it.
I’m sorry, did you read the beginning comments or did you just skip over them you ignorant human? I, as a man and the wanting of a family and the things that occur to make a family and knowing the pain of just being tapped in that area, think it’s a pretty intelligent request that another group of men who sit on their couch and eat potato chips for a living to who comment on stories and players (who are other people and humans too) ruptured testicle as of its an amusing thing. Chester, you are what’s bad in this world. I am not someone to ever request people to stop doing things, other than kneel during the national anthem and a group of mainly men poking fun at the fact a baseball player ruptured a testicle. Amazed at you. Your Somme today is even beneath you Chester.
*your comment is even beneath you
Sorry, before I get slammed for my typos my commute to my job isn’t texting conducive. Chester May just skip over almost the entire comment and just see what he wants to see before his reply
The signing of Carlos Gonzalez is making more sense now.
Wow. I am so glad the Braves didn’t trade for Haniger. I don’t mean this in any condemning way on Seattle or praise for Atlanta. Hanigers injury was a freak accident but man, if he didnt have bad luck he wouldn’t have any luck at all.
They gave up Walker or Matte or who for him?
Mitch, next time wear your jock strap
Stupid comment…..maybe you should look up how happened.
Not sure how Haniger damaged his testicle. Was it an off field accident or in season injury? As for the disc injury, was that another off field accident? He may want to consider giving up the game of baseball to fully recover.
Wa hit by a ball while batting.
Haniger has had two freak accidents in his young career- in 2017 he took a 95mph Jacob DeGrom fastball straight to his face. Then he fouled off a pitch that ricocheted downwards to the groin! Back injuries scare me- hopefully that is a one and done spine procedure. Personally, I look at the balance on the follow thru of his swing and I could see injuries being a theme throughout his career. There’s a lot of moving parts in his swing but what do I know?
Mitch is going to hit his age 30 season with a lot to prove