Bonser’s injury was worse than expected; season likely over UPDATED
Posted on February 25th, 2009 – 1:19 PMBy La Velle
Doctors today found a torn labrum and torn rotator cuff in Boof Bonser’s right shoulder, leading to more extensive repairs than what was first thought.
Bonser is out at least six months, but probably the whole season.
My reaction is that this is a total surprise, given that he underwent two MRI exams that revealed no structural damage. It’s too bad for Boof, who had a good chance at a bullpen spot.
Still waiting for the Twins to officially announce the injury. Will check back later when more details are known.
3:42 Update: The Twins have made it official. The press release states that Dr. Koco Eaton, `found and repaired partial tears to the right labrum and rotator cuff in Bonser’s shoulder. Bonser is expected to miss six to eight months recovering from the surgery.‘
99 Responses to "Bonser’s injury was worse than expected; season likely over UPDATED"
Looks like that voodoo doll investment paid off for Humber and Dickey…
Wonder if this may strengthen the push for Cruz.
must be that mri they bought at wal-mart to save money!
good news for humber, if he pitches well he should be a good long relief guy. can’t see starting the clock on any of the other minor league up and comers until they have to.
I’m not trying to bash the doctors, I just wonder why this is found out at the begining of spring training. When did he hurt it exactly? It would make sense at the end of last season… or maybe after a couple weeks of spring training… but to tear his labrum and rotator cuff already after just a day or two of starting to pitch again?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that the same thing Jesse Crain had two years ago?
Congrats to Humber and Mijares as I think this will lock them in the 25 man roster. Tolbert will be in AAA.
I don’t want to see the Twins give up on Humber. He showed a lot of potential the 2nd half last year and I just can’t get over the fact he was a big time prospect before he got hurt.
Cruz is a short-relief guy. Boof’s best shot was as a long reliever/spot starter. I doubt this changes the Twins’ Cruz strategy much.
While on the topic of relievers and whether Gardenhire will opt to keep six or seven, I question the assumption that LaVelle and others have been making about which position player would make the 25-man roster if the Twins go with an 11-man pitching staff. Most seem to assume it’ll go to Tolbert, but I’m thinking it’ll be a third catcher–Morales or Butera. Think about it: Mauer won’t be ready for everyday duty from the get-go; Gardy will need to ease him in. That would leave the roster perilously thin at catcher without a third guy. The thougt here is that the Twins will open with 11 pitchers and three catchers, then bumb the staff up to 12 and go with two catchers once Mauer’s up to speed and the schedule kicks into everyday mode.
Anybody out there have any opinion about my idea of moving Mauer to the number 2 spot in the order. The Padres did it with the best hitter in baseball (Gwynn) and while a great hitter, Joe is not a huge RBI guy. The order could go R/L almost throughout making it tough for opposing managers to make pitching changes late in games. How about:
Span CF
Mauer C
Young or Cuddyer (whoever is hot)
Morneau 1B
Crede 3B
Kubel DH
Cuddyer or Young
Casilla 2B
Punto SS
What do you think???????
I can still turn Boof into a Cy Young even with a torn labrum and torn rotator cuff. Well, looks like I have to work with Humber some more so Billy Boy has some bargaining chips for the D’Backs.
Yes, it’s the same thing Jesse Crain had.
How does this kind of thing not show up on an MRI?
I think Crain had only the labrum tear. Compared to a labrum tear, cuff tears are much more difficult to recover from. Both at the same time? Not good.
This is not a big loss. Don’t fool yourself people. Only disappointment is he now has no trade value…
seth,
it is exactly the same injury as Crain’s
How does this get missed on not one but two MRI’s? I been through it and it only took one MRI to find the tear.
Time to send Dr. Rosen Rosen to the records room and get him away from the MRI machine…
ossieO,
Crain had both tears
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/story/2007/05/17/crain-injury.html
OOOOOHHHHHH, they were supposed to MRI the RIGHT shoulder not the left, no wonder….
Doctors should be infallable, like the rest of us!!!!
Boof Bashers should now get off his case somewhat as this probably means he was pitching with that tear last year. At the very least a very weakened shoulder. Let alone that he is a human being who makes his money off of his right arm.
Hope you have a speedy recovery Boof as that is a tough break for you.
Given Boof’s long relief role I would say this opens the door for Humber since he is out of options.
Makes that Korecky move seem a little more unfortunate
torn labrums are very hard to diagnose.
It’s not unusual that it doesn’t show up on the MRI. He’ll be fine if he rehabs and does everything they ask him to do.
This clears a nice spot on the 40-man roster for a Cruz signing. Now all they need to do is agree to a number and get Arizona to realize that if Cruz doesn’t sign for another 75 days, they get nothing! I would like to think that a starter from Rochester (Duensing) or another good prospect such as Zach Ward would get Arizona thinking.
I had a slight labral tear diagnosed two + years ago. The tear showed up with no issues on a MRI, I wonder how it was not seen the first two times for Boof.
I had the surgery January 2007 (mainly because of instability) and am back to about 90% now. Could throw last year but was sore. Of course I didn’t have the access to the trainers Boof does. He should be good to go some spring training 2010 let alone later this fall.
Shouldn’t this have been diagnosed in early November/December when he started feeling the pain? I know he thought he just needed some more rest, but shouldn’t he be at least 2 months into his recovery at this point?
As everyone’s said, good news for Humber. Hopefully he can step into the role.
this wasn’t just the Twins doctors he also went he had a second oppen with the Rays doctors and they didn’t find anything on the MRI eather but Humber dont blow it you just made the Team good job
To the sports writer writing this article. What sport are you talking about? How stupid of you not to mention it….Are we all suppose to know every name in every sport?
Syd is right. I’ve torn my labrum twice and neither time did it show up on an MRI. Both times they discovered it was torn when they did exploratory surgery.
?
Hasn’t Boof been gone-for-the-season the last two years, really?
Who cares?
Without Boof how will we fill our fat reliever quota?
Dennys Reyes is still out there.
Whata dope…when did it first hurt?? He must have known about this for a long time. How about the end of the season!!! We might expect this out of a rookie, but not an experienced ML’er.
Maybe lifting his fork and raising his glass was too much for his pitching arm.
We’ll get along without him just fine. Never thought he was into it after being sent to the pen, anyway.
An MRI typically would not show damage to soft tissue. Hopefully, they would have done an MRA, which would have made the ligaments and any damage visible.
last year Bonser was not that effective; he didn’t appear to be able to throw to three batters without giving up a homerun. I would have more confidence in Humber, and of course, Cruz.
what outstanding news !! one less crappy bullpen arm for gardenhire to overuse, and another reason to go get Cruz.
yes, let’s get back to talking about punto for the next eight months.
BYE BYE BOOF
Hope the Twins figure it out and let this dissapointment go from the team. How do you come to camp with a sore arm, and then need to have surgery? Did the season not end for the Twins in Oct last year?….hmmmm 5 months to come to this conclusion…..what a typical Minnessota professional sports team. Making All the wrong decisions….How many titles do professional sports teams have……sadly only the Twinkies. Lets get used to it…
Might explain Boof’s inconsistent performance - wild over the plate far too often - over the last couple of years, who knows?
It does allow the Twins to hold on to Boof on the DL all year or at least until rosters expand since he and Humber both are out of options.
Getting Cruz could be the last piece of the puzzle - moving everyone in the bullpen behind Nathan one inning earlier and taking strain off all of them.
Span
Casilla - Harris
Mauer - Redmond
Cuddyer
Mourneau
Crede - Buscher
Kubel - Young
Punto - Tolbert?
Gomez
Baker
Liriano
Slowey
Perkins
Blackburn
Nathan
Crain
Mijares
Guerrier
Breslow
Ayala
Humber? Dickey? Henn?
Cruz?
Where are the holes?!? This looks fabulous to me!!!
I CAN’T WAIT FOR BASEBALL TO START!!!
;0)
It might translate into a push for Cruz if it forces them to shift Guerrier to mop up duty, leaving a need for another short relief guy. At any rate, worst case senerio they have to give one of the young guys a shot, which I am more interested in at this point than watching Boof pitch any more innings. Who knows how long the thing was torn though. It would definitely explain his awful numbers from last year if he was pitching through that.
How could the MRI’s be so misleading? I don’t fault the trainers in any way, but it sounded like Boof would be out a few weeks to “clean up” his shoulder, and now out for the season? Seems fishy to me. Either way, if I were Phil Humber or R.A. Dickey, I would be happy to have a better chance to join the team now.
If only we still had “the Real Deal” Durbin. Just kidding.
What is the status of Reyes’ as free agent?
Thanks for the news LEN, you’ve given people something to whine about who haven’t had much to work with since Crede was signed.
Labrum tears only show up when the shoulder is opened up, m.r.i.’s don’t show the labrum tear.
osseO,
Wrong. Laberum is much harder to come back from than a rotatior cuff. A few years ago I was a D-1 pitcher and had the same injury. Once they found out that it was a torn laberum I never really heard the doctor mention the rotator cuff as the laberum is what he was really conserned about.
Steve says:
February 25th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
BYE BYE BOOF
Hope the Twins figure it out and let this dissapointment go from the team. How do you come to camp with a sore arm, and then need to have surgery? Did the season not end for the Twins in Oct last year?….hmmmm 5 months to come to this conclusion…..what a typical Minnessota professional sports team. Making All the wrong decisions….How many titles do professional sports teams have……sadly only the Twinkies. Lets get used to it…
Lakers won a bunch of titles.
Which long reliever is available for a spare outfielder?
Oh no. Who’s gonna pick up the 6.00 ERA slack?
Wow. Tough crowd today.
Here’s hoping for a sppedy recovery for Boof.
that’s just wrong, labrum tears can indeed show up on an mri, my did. the labrum is like a ring, think of two concentric circles - what’s critical to know in guessing the rehab is how much (how many degrees of 360) was torn.
mine was only like 45 degrees, fairly minor but still i wasn’t able to throw for four months.
add in the rotator cuff injury and he might not throw for 8+ months?
i do remember that i had to go to a closed mri machine, as opposed to an open one, that the open ones don’t image nearly as well. going head first into a closed mri machine gives me the creeps.
You think Punto reads this blog? It seemed like he was a bit self-conscious in Souhan’s article. I don’t think I’ve ever read a quote from a professional athelete (its weird referring to Punto as a ‘professional athlete’ for some reason) that could be categorized as ’self-depricating,’ but there were several in that article. Good stuff.
To “What Sport R U Talking about,” this isn’t an article, it’s a blog entry. When the actual article appears, it will be more thorough.
Will the Twins be on Direct TV MLB network tonight?
I’m in no way saying it’s the trainers’ or doctors’ fault in not finding it. I just figured that if it hurt 2-3 months ago, you tell them and the entire process that took place over the last week moves up to around Christmas.
We can all rip Bonser right now, but it does open a hole in the pen. If you bring Humber in, you’re putting another youngster out there. Boof would have been a good long reliever if needed and he would have been a good short term arm to keep the load on the pen down. Crossing my fingers that Ayala works out and we get someone from Rochester or New Britain to fill the role.
Twins are on NESN tonight
Boof never quite learned or had the stamina to be a starter.
Too bad, because as a reliever he was just getting the hang of it last Sept.
I’m presuming Humber…..till 2011. Boof won’t be effective next year either.
And I’m presuming Mijares. He performed under pressure too well for the Twins to head him back to the minors.
BP is set unless they want to dump Humber or go with 12.
But with 12, they lose their pinchrunner (Tolbert, who is faster than Harris)……unless Span’s on the bench — which he won’t be. So, they’ll go with Tolbert rather than a 12-man staff.
Barring injury, a surprise horrible ST performance, or the dumping of Humber — the 25-man is set.
This just makes me angry. I was mad when they kept Bonser and got rid of Korecky. This makes it even worse…
My knowledge of MRI’s and X-rays is that not all internal problems show up and they are not 100% accurate so a torn labia or rotatior cuff could go undetected.
“I was mad when they kept Bonser and got rid of Korecky.”
That reaction would have, indeed been “mad”.
As in nuts!
Oops…..I forgot about Ayala.
Still getting the rust out.
And I see that today I should be over on Howard’s blog anyway re the pitching staff.
For all of you ripping on Bonser and how he could have let it go, especially being in pain, remember, everyone reacts differently to pain. Plus, a pro athlete is supposed to live with and put up with a certain amount of pain.
Joe Nathan had serious shoulder issues and look at him now.
I think Boof has the chance to come back from this and be a very good pitcher. Considering that Boof had some pretty good outings after he had shoulder pain tells me he has the guts to come back from this.
Not only Crain, but Balfour also had this injury. Balfour was finally back or at least close to pre-surgery level last year (3rd year removed from surgery). Crain is now on year two removed from the surgery.
Boof can come back from this, but it will not be quick.
My understandig is that Boof did not hide this from the staff and that it was their reccomendation re treatment (he had an MRI at the end of last season that did not show anything).
It is a bad string for the Twins, first with Liriano who was given a rest and rehan only to end under the knife, same with Neshek, now Boof. Maybe the caution is the right thing, but it seems to cost serious time when immediate surgery would have these guys back more quickly.
La Velle, just to switch gears a little, any word yet on the Twins lineup tonight?
[sigh]
Well, on the plus side, this makes the decision about who pitches in the bullpen a bit easier. This is good news for Phil “Out of Options” Humber.
Doc: Um… I’m pretty sure that’s not really the kind of tear that you think could go undetected… is it?
Doc, I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
That’s all I’m going to say.
When I tore my rotator cuff, it was the final problem of many I had had with that shoulder. What I am saying is that Boof could have torn it recently. If his was like mine, I don’t see how he could have played catch with it all winter.
All I can say is that I wouldn’t send Boof… or my wife/girlfriend/daughter, for that matter… to a “Doc” who confuses a labrum and a labia.
Whew… glad LaVelle’s posted a new thread. Good time to let this one die.
I feel bad for Boof, out of most of the Twins relief staff, he is one of the few pitchers that comes out and gets mad if the opposition gets a hit off of him. Ok, maybe he has’nt been the most accurate of pitchers on the Twins staff over the last year or so, but I like seeing a pitcher with heart, and he definitely has the mind to be a great pitcher someday. I hope he can recover and get back to the form that brought him to the big leagues in the first place. At one time, he was really good.
Speaking of Humber, from all of the things that I have read as having come from Gardie, he likes Humber. I am surprised that the Twins were even considering losing him by not protecting him on the 25 man roster. If he doesnt come north, he will be claimed immediately by another team since he is out of options. Aside from the fact, it really would stink losing one of the pitchers we got in the Santana trade without getting something in return.
Ben W,
Are you saying that Boof doesn’t have a torn labia?
Could of been worse. Could of been Frankie, Slowey, Baker, Perk. Not a big Boof fan. No big loss.
Tough break for Boof; maybe not such a bad break for the Twins though.
If Boof has a torn labia, I think he has more issues than just a shoulder injury.
opps, misspelled that, sorry.
not really a doctor i just play one on the blogs
I’m in no way saying it’s the trainers’ or doctors’ fault in not finding it. I just figured that if it hurt 2-3 months ago, you tell them and the entire process that took place over the last week moves up to around Christmas.
I guess the MRI last fall and the exam during TwinsFest in January don’t count?
Bonser’s sore shoulder has been known to the Twins since at least last September.
I also disagree with those who think this is somehow good news. Losing an option in a bullpen with lots of question marks is not a good thing.
A torn Labrum doesn’t always show up on MRI’s …
Thanks for helping me out of that one, A-Mike. Maybe I should switch to groinacology if I can’t spell.
Humber and Jones will make the team while Mijares spends the first two months in AAA. Smith and Gardy both called Jones to tell him they had been watching him for awhile. This cinches it for him.
Jones is probably as good or better than Korecky.
I had the same injury about 10 years ago and went through the same crap with doctors and MRI. Docs (insurance company?) made me go through therapy first with no positive result. Then a negative MRI, more waiting and therapy, then finally “exploratory surgery”. Torn labrum and a supraspinatus tendon that looks like an untwisted piece of twine. He is out for the year and will be slow to start next season (isn’t he already slow to get going). He’s not much of a loss to this team.
David,
You make a good point about carrying a 3rd catcher at the start of the season to ease Mauer back into the rigors of everyday baseball.
It will all depend on where Mauer is at when the season begins. They may try with just Mauer and Redmond from the start and if Mauer feels that he can’t go regularly then call up a 3rd one.
on Web MD. Gee, Twins fans are really medically connected. What a bunch of morons.
I guess Boof won’t be winging it this season.
SweetOne:
With some of the options they have this year, the Twins could put together a potentially quality lineup without Mauer for a few days (though I imagine he’ll be there opening day)
Span
Casilla
Young/Cuddyer
Morneau
Kubel
Crede
Redmond
Punto
Gomez
I can’t believe people are actually getting on the healthcare providers and Bonser for the injury. Gotta have something to blog about, I guess. It’s probably all Punto’s fault, come to think of it. He’s probably the one who tore Boof’s labia . . .
Oh, and I hope Boof has a good and speedy recovery.
CUT HIM!!
T,
I realize they could put up a lineup, but who would be the backup if Mauer has to take a day off and Red-dog gets hurt?
Would Mauer tough it out to finish the game? Do we have an emergency catcher? If so who is it?
I’m just saying that depending on how ready Mauer is by 4/5, they may decide to carry a 3rd catcher for a couple of weeks.
Why didn’t he surgery at the end of last year? Did it get worse? I thought teams did physicals at the end of the year/
Addition through subtraction…….the Twins rotation just got better.
s/b bullpen, not rotation. But whatever.
Mauer will NOT bat 2nd ROY gardy has said this countless times. Your best hitter bats 3rd.
Haha Doc said labia. LOL!!
dont these guys take thorough physicals before hitting the fields..seems to me they would catch some of this stuff prior….unless boof didnt complain about it of course….
blessing in disguise… now we can keep humber because he’ll earn that final spot in the bullpen.
Yup, medical staffs (including your doctor) always get the correct diagnosis in the first 10 minute visit. Always. Since they didn’t here, it makes perfect sense that Bonser was a noncompliant patient. That’s gotta be it.
I still think Punto’s to blame. He tore Boof’s “labia” with a head first slide.
This all seems a little fishy to me. I don’t know this for sure because I’m not a major league pitcher but don’t these guys throw during the off season? Wouldn’t Bonser have felt pain months/weeks ago? Or was it the first day of spring happened to be the day he threw out his arm?
I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that Bonser hurt his arm doing something non-baseball related and he was afraid to tell the Twins staff.
[…] Twins Insider – […]
>>Anybody out there have any opinion about my idea of moving Mauer to the number 2 spot in the order. <<
Perfect ingredient to kiss goodbye all the good pitches seen by Casilla because Mauer bats behind him. You have Punto hitting behind Casilla. That’s not good for Casilla, and your change also removes speed from the top of the lineup and puts it at the bottom.
[…] Many readers of the Minneapolis-St.Paul Tribune have commented (follow link, scroll to bottom) on the report of Bonser’s surgery, talking about the two separate MRIs that apparently did not show conclusive presence of the injuries. How did two MRIs not show anything conclusive? […]
Comparing Bonser to Cruz is like comparing apples to oranges. I liked the idea of having two long relievers like Bonser AND Humber on the squad. Good luck Boof. You ARE going to be missed.
[…] news on the Boof front today. According to LEN III, he will miss the entire 2009 season . If you would have told me in the middle of last year that both Bonser and Neshek would miss 2009, […]
[…] sore right shoulder yesterday revealed labrum and rotator cuff tears, so his 2009 season is done before it even started. Bonser pitched his way out of the rotation last season and wasn’t much better following a demotion […]
