Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly will undergo thoracic outlet syndrome surgery on Wednesday, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports.
Kelly was already done for the season as a result of a procedure on a blood clot in his shoulder, though this latest surgery could perhaps put at least some of his 2021 campaign in danger. However, the Diamondbacks are optimistic Kelly will return to spring training at full health, according to general manager Mike Hazen. In the meantime, they’ll have to decide on a $4.25MM club option or a $500K buyout for Kelly for next season. Hazen said he doesn’t expect Kelly’s TOS procedure to “have a major impact on that decision right now,” though.
Before his health problems came to the fore, Kelly looked like a valuable summer trade chip for the Diamondbacks, as Steve Adams of MLBTR wrote leading up to the Aug. 31 trade deadline. A deal obviously didn’t materialize, as Kelly hasn’t taken the mound since Aug. 19. The 31-year-old ended the season with a 2.59 ERA/3.95 FIP and 8.33 K/9 against 1.44 BB/9 over five starts and 31 1/3 innings.
Well sadly that means his career is likely over. That surgery has been a death nail for damn near everyone who’s had it.
Yeah it’s a pretty bleak outlook. I think Fangraphs has an article from a few years back that has data showing that on average guys only return from the procedure to throw ~200 innings or so and their ERA almost always goes up.
There’s been some who have been able to make it through. Alex Cobb comes to mind as an active guy, Chris Young and Clayton Richards put together a couple of decent years afterwards too. Hopefully he ends up more in that group
It felt like it has only been a thing recently, so I had also just been looking at that same FanGraphs article. It is not pretty.
Matt Harvey is the most famous example of how career crushing it is.
I’d be shocked if the D’backs didn’t decline the option. They’ve been trimming payroll left and right anyhow.
Article is, Phil Hughes and the Sobering History of Thoracic Outlet Surgery
I’m not familiar with the arsenal of all of them, but are they all/mostly not pitchers who didn’t throw that hard to begin with, so any loss in velocity doesn’t affect them as much as they already know how to pitch to control/contact?
Ryu has come back but it took him 3 years to get to full health.
Ryu has had both shoulder and elbow issues, though none that I recall resulted in him having thoracic outlet surgery.
You are correct, he did not have surgery for TOS. His biggest issue in the last few years was surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder.
@Danbino- as I read that I was thinking the same exact thing. I really hope we’re wrong though. Very sad to see because Kelly was pitching so excellent. I hate seeing pitchers having success and then getting hurt.
RIP.
I would ask what rehab all the other did and do the opposite. Career is over if you do it their way so if you want to continue, someone needs to develop a new rehab program for this.
I get your point of trying alternative treatments, but it’s not quite that simple of an issue.
Tough break. I hope he’s the one that makes it back better than the rest.
This is the Surgery that pretty much has
Ended Matt Harvey’s Career.
Chris Archer had this surgery Jun. 3, 2020. Any news on how he feels. It takes 10 to 12 months to recover (if ever). Hope he comes back strong.
Yep it’s the kiss of death surgery
At the moment, but so was TJ at one point. As techniques and understanding of the rehab get better, maybe in 5-10 years time pitchers will be able to bounce back much better from it. That doesn’t help Kelly in the here and now though of course.
This fraudulent surgical practice has been a great money maker for its practioners. Not so good for those duped into it.
And MLB and the players union just play along.
At least stem cell therapy, another fraud, does no harm.
Listen. No surgery is perfect. It should be a last option for most of us. In general, it alleviates pain and inflammation. That is a huge benefit for overall quality of life, not fraud. It does seem to affect their ability to pitch the same way they had previously, so that is a trade off that people need to decide for themselves. I’m sorry if you’ve had a bad experience yourself, but this is similar to Tommy John, which has improved over time. Hopefully that is the case with TOS too, but for the moment this is a procedure that potentially allows a pitcher to return when it previously may have ended a career.
TC, that us a ridiculous comparison to make. This “disorder” in these instances arise from overuse. The remedy is principally REST. This is quite different than replacing a ligament that is torn.
Talk about rotten news, hopefully Merrill Kelly can recover from this and ideally get back to where he left off this year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Diamondbacks pick up the 2021 option.
Merrell Twins > Merrill Kelly