Considering Carl Pavano missed almost a year with injuries that didn’t require surgery, it’s hard to believe he will bounce back quickly from an operation to remove a chip from above his right elbow.
Results of an MRI taken Thursday revealed a chip that needs to come out.
According to Joe Torre, the surgery will be done by Dr. James Andrews next week in Birmingham.
Reliever Tanyon Sturtze also will be operated on by Andrews, on Tuesday in Birmingham, to correct a rotator-cuff tear.
Asked if Pavano’s season, which never got started due to back and buttock ailments during spring training, is finished, Torre hedged.
“That I don’t know,” said Torre, who didn’t talk to Pavano yesterday before the Yankees and Mets opened the Subway Series at Shea Stadium.” According to Torre, nobody will know the extent of Pavano’s problem until Andrews’ scalpel invades the $40 million body that has been battered and broken since the day the 30-year-old Pavano arrived at spring training in 2005.
“They won’t know until they go in there and see,” Torre said.
Pavano hasn’t appeared in a big league game since last June 27 when he was diagnosed with tendinitis in the shoulder. This past Wednesday he cut short a minor league rehab appearance in Trenton after nine pitches because of an uneasy feeling in the arm.
Having seen Pavano throw in a St. Petersburg bullpen two weeks ago, Torre started to think about adding the righty to his rotation at some point.
Asked if there was a time he was counting on Pavano this year, Torre said, “When I saw him in [St. Petersburg], I was.
“At that point in the rehab I was getting excited,” Torre added. “His stuff was electric. We never saw that last year.” Now, no one knows.
Signed to a four-year, $40 million contract, Pavano was expected to be a top-of-the-rotation pitcher for the Yankees, possibly slotting in between Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina.
So far for their money, the Yankees have a pitcher with a 4-6 ledger and a 4.77 ERA in 17 starts.
And a chucker who nobody can be certain will pitch in a big league park this season.