Pitcher Brandon Beachy’s arm injury appears to be far worse than he and the Braves initially believed, and Beachy could find out Monday that he needs a second Tommy John elbow surgery and another year-long rehabilitation.
The Braves face the almost unimaginable, but quite real, possibility that pitchers Kris Medlen and Beachy could both find out Monday when they see Dr. James Andrews that they need to have a second ligament-transplant surgery – aka “Tommy John” surgery — in their pitching elbows.
Medlen has already come to grips with the fact that he is almost certainly going to need the surgery, and now Beachy knows that he might also need to have Tommy John surgery for the second time – and his third elbow surgery overall — in a span of less than two years. That’s assuming that Andrews would even recommend having so many surgeries within such a short period of time.
“Lot of frustration,” Beachy said Friday. “Really, really frustrated.”
After leaving Monday’s game against the Phillies after only two innings due to what he thought was only biceps tightness and inflammation, Beachy had tests done this week that showed a possible ligament tear.
He had Tommy John surgery in June 2012, then an arthroscopic procedure to remove a bone chip in September 2013.
“I was pretty confident when I talked to you guys after the game Monday,” said Beachy, who had said after coming out of the game early that he wasn’t concerned, that he’d been assured his ligament was fine, and that he was only experiencing normal type of soreness associated with coming back from surgery.
“I was being honest,” he said. “That’s what I was told. Now, it looks like it could be something else. Got to find out more.”
When asked if it could be the ligament again, he said, “Could be.”
