WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo confirmed Tuesday night after the Nats 8-6 win over the St. Louis Cardinals that 1B Adam LaRoche will indeed have season-ending labrum surgery Thursday under the care of team doctors.
"We had a meeting with our medical staff today and Adam and his representatives and the decision's been made for Adam to have surgery. He's gonna have surgery Thursday here in Washington by Dr. [Wiemi] Douoguih and he'll begin his rehabilitation and if all goes right he'll be 100 percent by beginning of spring training."
"Obviously we're hoping it's just a clean-up," Dr. Douoguih said. "But we'll be prepared to do everything needed to get him healed and properly treated and get him back for spring training next year."
The rehab process will depend on what the doctors find once they get into his shoulder. If they only need to do a clean-up procedure, LaRoche's recovery will be 3-4 months. If the damage and repair is more extensive the recovery will take up to 6-7 months.
"[LaRoche] was disappointed, frustrated that he couldn't help the club more than he had," Rizzo added. "He feels that he let his teammates down. But this guy did everything he could to stay on the field. He's a tough guy and tried to battle through it and just couldn't perform enough to do it and the pain after the rehab just didn't allow him to continue."
"Everything we did was to try to safely get [LaRoche] out there and produce this season," Dr. Douoguih explained. "As soon as we recognized that this was something more problematic we did a standard program, we shut him down, put him on anti-inflammatories. We then progressed to an injection. We shut him down after that and gradually tried to work him back in. Everything we did was gradual, really textbook. Unfortunately he just wasn't able to get through that and he's now requiring surgery."
LaRoche's season ends after 43 games where he hit .172 with five home runs and 15 RBIs. The Nats signed the veteran first baseman to a two-year, $16 million contact with a club option for 2013 this past off-season.
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