Giants left-hander Alex Wood will undergo an ablation procedure on his spine, Maria Guardado of MLB.com was among those to report. However, the club has not ruled Wood out for Opening Day, according to manager Gabe Kapler.
Wood, a former Brave, Red and Dodger, joined the Giants for a $3MM guarantee in the offseason. He’s expected to rack up plenty of starts for the club this season if he’s healthy, though injuries have been a frequent problem for the 30-year-old dating back to his major league debut in 2013. Wood combined for only 48 1/3 innings during the previous two seasons, owing to back and shoulder problems, but he was highly effective in last fall’s playoffs as the Dodgers stormed to a World Series title. Wood threw 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball in the postseason, including four scoreless frames during the Fall Classic.
Although his regular-season stretch from 2019-20 didn’t go according to plan, it’s not difficult to see why the Giants took a chance on Wood over the winter. He owns a quality 3.45 ERA/3.72 SIERA across 851 2/3 innings and is familiar with president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, who was in the Dodgers’ front office for part of Wood’s time there. Assuming he comes back quickly from this procedure, Wood figures to join Kevin Gausman, Johnny Cueto, Anthony DeSclafani and either Aaron Sanchez or Logan Webb in the Giants’ rotation.
Wood hurt again? Damn shame.
Another injury lol. At least its not major
It’s a procedure to deal with the back issue he had recently experienced and was reported on this site .An ablation is a procedure, not an injury.
Reading is hard.
even if it’s a procedure still not a good thing to have and could have lingering effects.
Reading is not hard. A procedure to deal with a nerve issue. Could end up worse for the player than a normal injury
Haha, much too serious of a response from Dr. MLBTR to a guy making a casual and in that sense accurate observation.
It would be more accurate to call it “another injury,” when the injury was actually reported. But if lazy leopard wants to digest information as incompletely as Luc, have at it.
So if he was to miss substantial time for this, would he go in the procedure reserve or the issue reserve-please explain for the illiterates here-we desperately need your clarification…..
I believe Marco Estrada had this in 2019 and it went from a 10 day to 60 day to being released.
Too early to call it.
Exactly.. When you are doing a procedure involving nerves in the spine, you don’t know how it will turn out. Each patient is different. May be back soon. Might be done
Hopefully Wood will have a great recovery and minimal problems moving forward.
God damnit
What? Like he’s going to contribute much besides innings
3.45 career ERA is contribution.
Wow , nobody saw this one coming
Who Wood have expected this? I really wish the injury bug Wood just leaf him alone already.
Maybe he needs more lumber support for his back.
Had no idea what this meant. Per Kaiser Permanente
“The destruction (also called ablation) of nerves is a method that may be used to reduce certain kinds of chronic pain by preventing transmission of pain signals. It is a safe procedure in which a portion of nerve tissue is destroyed or removed to cause an interruption in pain signals and reduce pain in that area.”
Did it say if there is a whole body procedure one could have done? Playing a round of golf these days feels like playing a game of football 20 years ago.
Ablations can be applied to many parts of the body, including the wiring to/from the heart. But you cannot ablate the entire body at once.
I’ve had ablations done in the past on my back. Very simple procedure. It’s like a series of hot needle injections around the spine to reduce pain; an attempt to burn the nerves to numb it. Sore for maybe a day or two. This is nothing that would require extended rest or rehab.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing that.
I do wonder if not feeling pain is a good thing. Pain is usually a sign that something is wrong. Just because you don’t feel it, doesn’t mean it is better.
A lot of people end up doing ablations because of either cartilage wearing down in the back (causing the disks to rub together) or degeneration in the back. Some prefer to be sedated for it. The procedure itself is done within 30 minutes. Surgery is always last resort, as any reputable surgeon will not operate on someone’s back on the low side of 40 unless there is something alarming going on or trying to correct an injury. All that to say … I doubt this is anything serious that is affecting his performance on the field at this point in his career, but simple pain management. It is likely treating discomfort that he inherited through the genetic composition of the spine. If he has success with the ablation (had it done twice on myself and it did not work) the benefits are better sleep, better quality of life and no need to be on pain meds.
If you’ve experienced severe back pain, you might welcome not being able to feel that pain. I had this procedure and it made no difference. Still hurts.
Yes. I had this done . They put electronic probes that looks like acupuncture needles in various places where the nerve is acting up. Then they take a long thin electro needle to where the damage is and numb the nerves. Can be uncomfortable because there is little anesthesia used but the whole procedure lasted less than 30 minutes. There was mild discomfort but there’s been no significant back pain since.
I haven’t heard of this surgery, but all I know is I don’t want to be sitting across from my doctor telling me I need an ablation procedure on my spine.
It’s not a surgery; it’s a series of injections that end up ‘burning’ your nerve endings in your back. I too have had this done and it’s quite a simple procedure but it can be very uncomfortable if you are not sedated. The doctor stuck the needle right in my nerve and I almost convulsed off the table! But within a day or two I felt great. A little tender around the injection site but the chronic back pain subsided by 90% +. My guess is that he has some type of degenerative disc disease in his spine, resulting in less space between his vertebrae and facet joints which results in nerve irritation and pain. Between this procedure and facet blocks or epidurals, it can be managed quite effectively. This sounds much worse than it actually is. He might miss a start or two if he has a spasm during the season but this issue should not prevent him from pitching the majority of the season. Poor guy can’t catch a break. At least it’s not his shoulder or elbow; that would be much worse.
That doesn’t sound pleasant.
I’ve had this many many times, sometimes one broken into 3 separate parts, each a month apart, in order to give it time to see what was fixed, but also to break up the recovery time.
Twice, the recovery was much longer than other times. Sometimes ablasions don’t work, and they try epidurals also.
I would not be surprised to know that these procedures are common, but just not reported.
Trust me. What really is scary is an ablation of the heart.
That’s what Kanley Jansen had. Your post inspired me to Google the procedure and yep, that was it.
Definitely sounds scary.
LLGiants64 – Not really that scary. I had one. They knock you out and by numbing the wiring to/from your heart, they essentially cauterize one path and the body finds a stronger, better path. You can’t be awake for this procedure, but it works.
This sounds like something that yankee fans will need to have when the LeBron Red Sox start to crush them routinely.
Another reason to hate the Red Sux. Boston is the perfect place for King James.
He’ll fit in quite well with the smug comments and the condescending attitudes. When will Sux fans find a hole and bury themselves. You can only talk trash about the Yankees because you don’t beat them that often. And how good is this team going to be with a second rate rotation and losing their entire outfield? Save the smugness for someone who cares. Care to bet on which team will have the better head to head record?
Wood was a roll of the dice signing, same as Aaron Sanchez. If the Giants get 50-100 quality innings out of each one they’ll be well worth it. Logan Webb has been their best pitcher this spring however it might be wise for the Giants to bring in another free agent as insurance. There is still Porcello, Hamels, Leake, Godley, Shark etc.. out there
Please DO NOT mention Shark.
Its not an injury, the procedure destroys pain sending nerves in the lower back (mostly). Recovery is one to three days.
Would not the pain be caused by an injury of some kind? Could be cumulative effect of several older injuries. Pain usually does not occur unless you sustain some type of injury.
Nerve pain in the back is common and it can be caused by years of bad posture or nerve degeneration. It’s not usually related to any injury, but if not treated the pain is agonizing.
maybe Wood puts strain on his back with that funky delivery…
Usually done to alleviate pain around the back/spine that is genetic. As cartilage wears down over time, pain becomes more significant. Thus, the ablations. If this was injury based, they would do something surgical.
If I listed all the injuries Wood has endured over the past seven or eight years, I am certain to be cited for a HIPPA violation..
Anyway, here’s hoping the procedure makes him pain free. Hellava pitcher when he’s on his game.
You gotta feel for him. He’s got mid rotation talent but cannot stay healthy. Instead of making tens of millions he gets one year prove it deals and can’t stay healthy to prove it
his first half of 2017 was so good and he’s a lefty, so he will continue to get one-year deals until he literally cannot get out of bed…