TORONTO (AP) -Blue Jays pitcher Dustin McGowan had surgery Thursday to repair fraying of the labrum in his right shoulder and is expected to be healthy in time for spring training.
Last September, an MRI revealed McGowan had a partial tear in his rotator cuff. That injury was inspected again during Thursday’s surgery, but no further work was required.
“He should be ready for spring training,” general manager J.P. Ricciardi said. “We might have to bring him along a little slower. Everything looked good and he’s on the road to recovery now.”
The right-hander, 6-7 with a 4.37 ERA in 19 starts, left a game against Baltimore on July 8 after four innings, saying that ongoing pain in his shoulder had become too much to handle.
The 26-year-old McGowan worked a career-high 169 2-3 innings with Toronto last season, going 12-10 with a 4.08 ERA. He also pitched 22 innings in five starts at Triple-A. He missed all but six games of the 2004 season as a minor leaguer because of ligament replacement surgery on his elbow.
After speaking with doctors today, Ricciardi said he’s not concerned about the health of Scott Rolen, who plans to take days off to rest his surgically-repaired left shoulder.
“His shoulder is as strong as it could possibly be, it’s just a little fatigued from over work,” Ricciardi said.
The 33-year-old Rolen was held out of the lineup yesterday as Toronto wrapped up a three-game series against Tampa Bay. He is hitless in 17 at bats, has not homered since June 26 and is batting .163 (13-for-80) in July.
Overall, Rolen is batting. 254 with six home runs and 31 RBIs in 82 games. He suffered a finger injury at the end of spring training, causing him to miss the first 23 games of the season.
Rolen had surgery on his shoulder once in 2007 and twice in 2005. He was traded to Toronto last January in a deal that sent Troy Glaus to St. Louis.
Toronto didn’t make any trades Thursday, but did talk to several teams. Ricciardi said the Blue Jays had spoken with Seattle about outfielder Raul Ibanez but weren’t able to agree on a deal before the deadline.
“We were ready to go forward,” Ricciardi said. “At the end of the day, they didn’t feel comfortable.”
Catcher Gregg Zaun, who asked to be traded after losing time to Rod Barajas, will be staying with Toronto.
“We had hits on Barajas but we didn’t have any on Zaunie,” Ricciardi said.
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