Knee surgery will render Gonzalez out for season
After starting the season at a surprisingly good pace the Rockies’ have now slid to last place in the National League West with a 47-74 record. 2014 just does not seem to be the Rockies’ season, seemingly even more so with the events of the past week. Three Rockies’ players are now out with season-ending surgery.
First came the news that their would-be N.L. MVP, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, is now out for the season with a surgery requiring hip injury. Then came the news that the Rockies’ injury-prone starting pitcher Brett Anderson would be having season-ending back surgery. Now it’s been made public that another Rockies’ star will be out for the remainder of the season.
It was announced Thursday that their star outfielder Carlos Gonzalez will undergo season-ending knee surgery on Monday. Wednesday’s MRI showed that there was more damage to Gonzalez’s knee that previously thought and the the doctors won’t know the extent of the damage until they do the surgery.
CarGo has been dealing with knee tendinitis since the middle of last season and he has also been working with a sprained ankle recently. Earlier in the season CarGo missed a significant amount of time due to a finger injury that turned out to be a benign tumor that had to be removed.
The two-time All-Star and three time Gold Glove Award winner is having the worst year of his career, understandably so with all the injuries and time missed. He’s played in just 70 games this season and is batting .238/.292/.431 with 11 home runs and 38 RBI.
However, when Gonzalez, 28, is healthy he has the capacity to do great things. He has a career batting average of .294 and prior to this season had four straight 20-plus home run seasons. Hopefully the surgery will be able to correct the tendinitis he’s been fighting in his left knee.
The doctors say that CarGo’s recovery time should take about five to six months and he should be ready to go as soon as spring training. Gonzalez had the option of getting plasma rich injections but those would only help him feel better and not fix the problem. GarGo said of taking the surgery rout:
“Of course, this wasn’t something that I was looking for, but I know we’re looking for results. We’re looking to get something done so I don’t have to deal with this.”
It was reported by ESPN that Gonzalez told the Denver Post,
“I still have that fire, that passion. But it’s limited. I show up the first game and go 3 for 5 with a home run, and I extend a single into a double. And then the next day, I feel like I got hit by a bus.”“It’s hard to play that way, when you go out there and feel like, ‘I can’t move today. I just hope nobody hits the ball where I’m playing right now,’ ” he said. “When your body gets stressed, your mental part gets affected, too.“Instead of thinking about the way they’re pitching me or if the ball is hit to me, I’m gonna throw it this way. All I was thinking was, ‘My knee hurts; I don’t feel good.’ The mental stress is big.”
The string of injuries and still ailing knee have taken a tole on the outfielder and so surgery does seem like the right way to go even if it does cost him the rest of the 2014 season.