By Bob Dutton
The News Tribune
SEATTLE — The already-long comeback road for Seattle Mariners lefty reliever Charlie Furbush just got a lot lot longer: 12-18 months longer.
Furbush, 30, will undergo surgery Tuesday to repair a partially torn rotator cuff after spending the last 13 months in a rest-and-rehab approach.
“For me,” he said, “a realistic goal is spring training of 2018. Anything earlier than that, I’m onboard.”
Furbush made eight appearances last month in a rehab assignment at Short-A Everett and Tacoma. After a rough first outing, he allowed just one earned run over 5 2/3 innings in seven games.
But Furbush continued to need extra recovery time after pitching.
“I just had some achiness in there,” he said. “I still had range of motion and strength in there. They thought it would be good to have an MRI done. It still revealed the same tear I had last year.
“We decided it would be best to forward and just get it fixed.”
Furbush hasn’t pitched in a big-league game since July 7, 2015. He was 1-1 with a 2.08 ERA last season in 33 games prior to going on the disabled list. He is 13-24 with 3.97 ERA overall in 247 games over his five-year career.
Dr. Edward Khalfayan, the club’s medical director, will perform the surgery.
“It is what it is,” Furbush said. “I knew the whole time going in that the rehab was going to work or it wasn’t. I just kept it as simple as that. I tried to work as hard as I could. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.
“But part of me is excited to get this done because I know, now, it’s the real road to recovery.”
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