As if we didn’t already realize it, the Erik Bedard trade last February officially has become a bust for 2008. The Mariners announced tonight that he will undergo exploratory surgery on the left shoulder that has troubled him much of the season.
Bedard will have arthroscopic surgery on Sept. 26. It will be performed by Dr. Lewis Yocum, who examined Bedard’s shoulder while the Mariners played the Angels over the weekend. In the least, Yocum will debride the shoulder, meaning he’ll remove any non-healthy tissue or foreign material.
The Mariners won’t know how long Bedard will be out until the extent of the damage to his shoulder is determined.
It’s been a frustrating year for everyone concerning Bedard. The Mariners traded away a load of talent — relief pitcher George Sherrill, outfielder Adam Jones and minor league pitchers Kam Mickolio, Chris Tillman and Tony Butler — to get Bedard from the Orioles. They thought it was the piece they needed to complete a pitching staff that, in the team’s eyes, would compete with the Angels for the AL West title.
Bedard wasn’t the horse atop the starting rotation that everyone had hoped he would be, especially considering how much the Mariners traded away. He went 6-4 with a 3.67 ERA in 15 starts. Those are nice numbers, but Bedard frustrated the team with his inability to pitch deep into games and his injuries. He spent time on the DL early in the season with a hip problem.
Manager Jim Riggleman said he sensed there might have been a problem health-wise, and that became clear after Bedard’s July 4 start. He went on the disabled list because of tightness in the shoulder.
An MRI exam July 22 didn’t reveal any structural damage, and the Mariners continued with their approach that Bedard wouldl tell them when he felt like throwing again. The problem is that Bedard never really said a lot. Riggleman, in fact, said early this month that Bedard rarely says anything.
Bedard has been playing catch off and on for more than a month, and began throwing off the bullpen mound during the Mariners’ last homestand. He never threw with full intensity, and last week while the M’s were in L.A., they had Yocum examine Bedard. A timetable on Bedard’s recovery will be announced following surgery.
“Erik has worked diligently with our medical staff for the past two months attempting to rehabilitate his shoulder without surgery,” M’s GM Lee Pelekoudas said. “We have determined that surgery is the best course of action at this time.”
That Mariners can only hope that surgery will reveal — and repair — whatever has caused the problem in Bedard’s shoulder. And then they all can get on with the process of proving this trade wasn’t a bust.
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