Joel Zumaya isn't the only guy who's ever thrown a hundred miles per hour, but he's one of the more well-known members of the group. He's known for his ability to throw really hard, and he's known for his unfortunate injury-proneness. His latest injury: a torn UCL, suffered early in spring training. While torn UCLs sometimes present a choice between rehab and ligament replacement, reports say Zumaya will go with the latter:
Source says Joel Zumaya will indeed have Tommy John surgery. Still far from certain he'll try to make another comeback. Such a sad story.
Tommy John surgery will end Zumaya's 2012 season before it got a chance to begin, and as Passan alludes to, there's a chance this could also end Zumaya's career. He's had so much trouble staying healthy that this might've been the last straw. He might decide that his body's trying to tell him he's not supposed to pitch.
We'll see what Zumaya decides. In the meantime, here, be heartbroken:
On Feb. 19, the first day of workouts for pitchers at catchers, Zumaya threw a 40-pitch bullpen session and was brimming with confidence.
"If I didn't have confidence, I never would have got signed," he said. "Going through all this, I had to let it go as the past. I'm coming in as a fresh beginning, and I'm ready to go."
I don't know Joel Zumaya personally, but I know there are few people on whom I would wish Zumaya's situation.
