Brandon Beachy had another surgery on his pitching elbow Thursday, but the procedure wasn’t nearly as invasive as his reconstructive surgery in June 2012, and the Braves right-hander should be back for spring training.
Beachy went 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA in five starts from July 29 through Aug. 20, between two periods when he was shut down for 2-3 weeks at a time due to recurring soreness and inflammation in his surgically repaired elbow.
Dr. James Andrews, who performed Beachy’s Tommy John surgery 15 months ago, this time did an arthroscopic procedure that Braves officials describing as a “cleaning out.”
Braves general manager Frank Wren said they were “very encouraged, because a lot of the symptoms he’s had since he started trying to come back (from Tommy John surgery), they’re not normal in that they’re not over the ligament. That’s the consistent theme is – the ligament’s fine. And so we’re trying to get to the bottom of it.
“It’s the type of small irritations that don’t show up on a normal MRI,” Wren continued. “And so when Dr. Andrews got in there, he found the source of the problems. There were really two areas, one in the back of the elbow and one in the outside, that he had had just these little discomforts over the course of time, and couldn’t quite get him over the hump. And he found the reason in both cases. I think everybody is encouraged.”
Wren said the procedure didn’t involve the removal of bone spurs or chips.
“Just in the healing process, these little fragments or something, I don’t know the best way to describe it other than it’s just small foreign objects that keep it from healing properly,” he said. “So I think it’s probably the best news we could hope for, and the normal return is three months on this type of surgery. He should come into spring training on time and 100 percent.”
Beachy, who turned 27 this month, had still hoped to pitch again this season as of last week. But each time he resumed light throwing, the soreness was there. So the Braves sent him back to see Andrews, who last month had examined him and found no ligament damage on the MRI.
After examining Beachy again Wednesday, arthroscopic surgery was scheduled for Thursday.
Beachy had a 2.00 ERA and majors-leading .171 opponents’ average in 13 starts in 2012 before tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. He has a 14-11 record and 3.23 ERA in 46 career starts, with 275 strikeouts and 86 walks in 267-2/3 innings.
