Baltimore Orioles’ Matt Wieters to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery
Baltimore Orioles All-Star catcher Matt Wieters will undergo Tommy John surgery on Tuesday to repair his torn ulnar-collateral ligament, the team announced in a Monday press release.
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Wieters has been limited to 26 games this season and hasn’t played since May 10th. The club had set a July deadline to determine whether Wieters would be able to come back this season after being shut down but after his throwing program did not yield the results he or the team hoped for the decision was made to undergo the surgery to be ready to go for the 2015 season.
The 2014 season has seen a number of talented pitchers forced to undergo the once career-ending operation, including Jose Fernandez from the Miami Marlins, but unlike pitchers, the recovery period for Wieters is anticipated to be in the nine month range and therefore will be out for the remainder of this season but should be ready to take part in Spring Training next year.
Wieters was off to the best start of his career at the plate with a .308/.339/.500 (131 OPS+) slash line, including five doubles, five home runs and 18 runs batted in. His value to the team was also vital to the way he handled the pitching staff and to the team’s win-loss record.
With the two-time All-Star and two-time gold glove winner in the lineup, the Orioles were 16-10 in games he started but have only won 17 of the 40 games they played without him behind the dish.
With Wieters gone for the rest of the season the team will continue to roll with Caleb Joseph and Nick Hundley behind the plate.