Some awful news on the injury front for the Yankees: RHP Frankie Montas will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder next Tuesday, and there is concern he could miss the entire season.
According to the skipper Aaron Boone, the results of the scope will determine what more may need to be done to alleviate the shoulder inflammation that has given Montas trouble since last summer, and the best case scenario is a “late season return.”
"It's been a couple different shut-downs and then building back up," Boone explained about Montas' winter shoulder issues. "He saw (Dr. Neal) ElAttrache who cleared him, he was bulding back up and just asnt quite right so he went back, and now we've gotten to the point where they'll scope it, and we'll have a better idea of the time frame then. Once they're in there, they'll know what they may have to do, and that will determine things; best case is he'll be back late in the season, but we'll know a lot more on the 21st after they know what they have to do in there."
Even that news is a significant change from what had been reported earlier Wednesday morning by pitching coach Matt Blake, who told ESPN’s Marly Rivera that Montas was undergoing further testing and that surgery was an option, but the doctors were still assessing the situation with Montas’ shoulder.
"That's one we're still working through with doctors and assessing," Blake said. "I think surgery is on the table, we're just doing our due diligence here."
Montas, who was acquired at last July’s trade deadline, had a rough time as a Yankee, going 1-3 with a 6.35 ERA in 39 2/3 innings over eight starts before being placed on the IL in mid-September with right shoulder inflammation. He had left an early-July start after one inning due to shoulder inflammation and missed three weeks, but made two starts (albeit on limited pitch counts) for Oakland before being traded.
He was activated for the ALDS but made just one relief appearance, allowing one run in one inning of work in Game 1, and the Yankees had said last minth that Montas was again dealing with shoulder inflammation and would likely miss at least the first month of 2023.
Now, it seems, Montas is in danger of having that tough run last year be the entirety of his Yankees career, as he becomes a free agent next winter after making $7.5 million in his final arbitration year - and it's another blow to a Yankees rotation that saw Nestor Cortes arrive at camp with a Grade 2 hamstring strain that will keep him from throwing off a mound "for a few weeks," meaning the Yankees are now down to their sixth and seventh starters filling out the early rotation.
Despite that, Boone is confident in his current group, which now likely sees Domingo German and Clarke Schmidt as the two behind Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, and Luis Severino.
"We're still excited; losing Frankie is clearly a blow, but we feel very confident in those that are now going to maybe get an opportunity because he's not there initially," Boone said. "We feel very good about the depth we've built up and the rotation we will potentially go north with at the end of next month."
Follow Lou DiPietro on Twitter: @LouDiPietroWFAN
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