Chipper Jones’s bum knee can take no more, and the Braves have placed their third baseman on the disabled list.
Jones has been dealing with a tear in his meniscus for going on two months now, and the injury has finally forced him to the DL. The 39 year old is undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery Saturday.
Atlanta and Jones both feared the knee would become a larger issue if gone untreated through the summer and wanted to take care of things sooner than later.
"“I just didn’t want to play through it all summer and have something go wrong in September and have to miss the playoffs,” Jones said Saturday. “It’s killing me to hit right-handed, so we decided to play (Friday) night, then get it done today.”"
Originally Jones tried to play through the injury. The former MVP could rely on weekly cortisone shots to get through the pain, but lately the injection had lost its effectiveness and Jones continued to experience the discomfort.
Over his 77 games this season, Jones has put up a line of .259/.340/.428 with 8 home runs and 46 RBIs.
Even though he was voted by his peers to this year’s All-Star game, Jones will not be making the trip to Phoenix. Instead he’ll use the time to rest and recover after surgery as he hopes to rejoin the Braves in two to three weeks.
Atlanta has recalled infielder Brandon Hicks to takeover Jones’ spot on its roster.
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