Johan Santana To Have Shoulder Surgery, Miss Rest Of Season

Johan Santana's pectoral injury seemed to be no big deal. Though it forced him out of a game early, and caused him to miss his next scheduled start, by and large things were looking pretty good. Until Thursday night. Thursday night is when an MRI revealed something far more sinister. The press release:

An MRI at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan yesterday revealed that Mets pitcher Johan Santana has suffered a tear of the anterior capsule of the left shoulder.  The injury is located on the front and bottom part of the shoulder close to the pectoral muscle, resulting in discomfort radiating through both the pectoral muscle and shoulder.  Santana will undergo surgery in the near future and we anticipate he will be able to resume throwing in the spring.

This will be the third straight year that Santana has undergone a surgical procedure - he had elbow surgery to remove bone chips a year ago, and had his knee worked on in 2008. On the plus side, each of those operations was on a different part of his body. On the down side, you never want your big-money ace to turn into a scalpel magnet. That Santana is about to have shoulder surgery is especially concerning. Knees can be fixed. Elbows can be fixed. Shoulders are more tricky. Shoulders can be fixed, too, and often are, but if a pitcher has to get hurt anywhere, the shoulder's about as bad as it gets. Except for the brain, I guess. The brain and the spine.

So, what looked like nothing turned into a pretty significant medical problem. How Mets.