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Nationals' Strasburg Heads Home to Recover After Successful Elbow Surgery
Washington Nationals rookie pitcher Stephen Strasburg underwent surgery to replace a torn elbow ligament yesterday, an operation that will sideline him through next season.
“He had his surgery,” Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo said, according to MLB.com. “I got a call from (the surgeons) and they said it was successful surgery, he came through it with flying colors.”
Strasburg will go home to San Diego today to begin his rehabilitation from the so-called Tommy John procedure. He may be out 12 to 18 months.
The 22-year-old right-hander, who set strikeout records to start his career, posted a 5-3 record in 12 games for the Nationals, with a 2.91 earned-run-average and 92 strikeouts.
The injury abruptly ended the rookie campaign of a pitching prospect touted as the best to enter Major League Baseball in decades.
Strasburg, who signed a record $15 million, four-year contract with the Nationals as the first draft pick in 2009, had surgery to replace his right ulnar collateral ligament.
The procedure is named for John, a former Major League Baseball pitcher who was the first professional athlete to successfully undergo the operation in 1974. Since then, pitchers including A.J. Burnett, Tim Hudson and Billy Wagner have had the surgery and returned to the sport. John pitched until 1989.
Recovery and rehabilitation from the surgery generally take a year for pitchers, according to the medical website eorthopod.com.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net
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