Now more than ever in the world of Major League Baseball, starting pitchers go down with season-ending surgeries. For Philadelphia Phillies veteran Cliff Lee, he feels his next potential surgery could end his career.
Lee recently told the Philadelphia Enquirer that he feels if elbow surgery is needed to repair is bum throwing arm, it could possibly end his career.
"It would be 6-8 months out," Lee said. "So basically if I have the surgery this season will be done. Possibly my career I guess. I don't know. We'll have to see."
Lee is obviously in a bum mood right now after he was forced to explain the pain he felt in his elbow after pitching in his first spring training game last Thursday for the Phillies. The following day, on Friday, is when he revealed what he felt.
"And it was really mild, but, it's just concerning because I knew what it turned into last year, and I just wanted to be open. I wasn't trying to hide anything," Lee said. "I truly felt nothing for months and then all of a sudden there it is after the first time I pitch in a game. I was open and honest with our trainers and hoped to nip it in the bud as quick as we can and hope that it's just a little twinge or something from really cranking it up the first time in a while."
At 36-years of age, Lee has pitched a total of 13-seasons for four different organizations (Cleveland, Seattle, Texas and Philadelphia), via Baseball Reference. Lee's been an All-Star four times and took home the 2008 AL Cy Young award pitching to a 22-3 record and a 2.54 earned run average for the Cleveland Indians.