Scott Baker was scheduled to miss the entire 2012 season with cleanup
surgery on his right elbow, but the Minnesota Twins right-hander had unexpected
Tommy John surgery on Tuesday, the team announced.
Dr. David Altcheck in New York
performed the procedure to repair Baker's ulnar collateral ligament.
It's a turn of events for Baker after he said last week that Altchek had no
concern about the ligament after performing an MRI.
"Obviously, the tendon is not very good, but the ligament is," Baker
said last Wednesday. "He (Altcheck) said there's no need to mess with
that. I haven't had any discomfort there, which is a good thing. But at the
same time, what's going on right now, I just know two things: It's painful and
it's affecting my ability to be effective in a major league baseball game. What
do you do when that's the case? You have to get it taken care of."
Baker's originally scheduled surgery required a sixth-month rehab process,
which means he wouldn't pitch for the Twins this season. But Tommy John surgery
typically comes with about a year of rehab.
The Twins have a $9.25 million club option on Baker's contract for the 2013
season. Given the revised recovery time, it's unlikely Minnesota would pick up
his option, especially at that price.
Baker, who was placed on the DL on March 31, began having discomfort in his
elbow during spring training and had his first start of the season pushed back.
But it never came, as it was announced last week that Baker would be out for
the season.
Baker, 30, started the 2011 season by posting an 8-5 record with a 2.88
ERA through his first 18 starts. But his elbow problems flared up in early
August and limited the Twins' most productive pitcher for the rest of the
season. He went on the disabled list twice last year with elbow issues, and said
last week that his latest elbow problem is the same as the one that kept
him out in 2011.
Because of the injury last year, Baker made just 21 starts, his fewest since
2006. He missed almost all of August and made just two relief appearances in
September last season.
"It's something that I've been battling for a while," Baker said last
week. "I don't mind pitching through pain, as long as you don't have the
chance to further the injury. But when it comes to a point where your
velocity's not there and you don't have the ability to finish pitches like you
know you're capable of doing, then something's got to be done."
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