After learning his fate, CC Sabathia returned to the Yankees’ clubhouse and expressed confidence he can avoid the dreaded microfracture surgery and will be ready for spring training next February.
The Yankees veteran left-hander instead will undergo season-ending arthroscopic surgery to repair his right knee on Wednesday — though microfracture remains a possibility down the road.
Dodgers team physician Neal ElAttrache, who examined Sabathia on July 11 in Los Angeles, will perform the debridement on July 23.
Sabathia will need to rest 6-8 weeks before he begins to work out again. Sabathia is confident he not only will return, but pitch for a long time, after speaking to ElAttrache.
“He feels good about it and I do too,” Sabathia said Saturday. “Russell Westbrook [of the NBA’s Thunder] had the same surgery and was able to come back and be fine. Obviously, you have to deal with a little bit of swelling here and there, but it’s something I have to deal with. My goal, talking to ElAttrache, was to pitch the next four, five years, past this contract, and [ElAttrache thinks] I can be able to go out and do that.”
The 33-year-old Sabathia has struggled the past two years, going 17-17 with a 4.87 ERA. This season, he was 3-4 with a 5.28 ERA in eight starts. He has two years remaining on a five-year, $122 million contract he inked with the Yankees following the 2011 season.
Sabathia last pitched for the Yankees on May 10, and looked to rehab the knee rather than opt for surgery. But he woke up on the morning of July 3 with pain after pitching on a rehab assignment for Double-A Trenton and the knee hasn’t gotten better.
Sabathia is just one of several injured members of the Yankees’ decimated starting rotation. Ivan Nova is out for the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery, Masahiro Tanaka’s return is in doubt after suffering a slight tear in the UCL ligament in his right elbow and Michael Pineda, out since April 24, could return in August from the Grade 1 strain to his Teres major muscle.
“It sucks, it’s not fun, especially the way these guys have been grinding, wanting to be a part of it,” Sabathia said. “It’s just unfortunate, one of those things, something I’ve never had to deal with, but I am now, Sabathia said. “I feel, I guess, relieved that I have a little bit of answers and kind of a plan in place to move forward.”