Injury Updates-Wang, Aceves

Peter Abraham has the stories on Wang and Aceves. Chien Ming Wang will have season ending shoulder surgery and Aceves has a sore shoulder, but doesn’t think he’s injured. The Yankees originally downplayed the Wang injury and thought it wasn’t overly serious, intimating he’d only be out a month or so. Now there are indications he could be gone well into next season. Here’s the Wang story from the Yanks website:

ST. PETERSBURG — Chien-Ming Wang will have arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder capsule on Wednesday under the care of Dr. James Andrews and will miss the remainder of the 2009 season.

The Yankees hurler had another MRI examination performed on Monday in Birmingham, Ala., meeting with Andrews to discuss the results and the upcoming procedure on Tuesday.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said that the team has no timeframe on how long Wang will need to recover, but it will learn more after the surgery is complete.

“It’s a tough loss for us,” Girardi said after the Yankees’ 6-2 loss to the Rays. “I feel for him, because he’s been through a lot in the last 14 or 15 months, with the [right] foot injury and now this. Hopefully, this will be the end of the surgeries for him, and he will have the rest of his career to be healthy.”

Wang has been on the disabled list since July 5, his second stint on the shelf this season. The right-hander finished the year 1-6 with a 9.64 ERA in 12 games (nine starts), exiting a July 4 start against the Blue Jays with what was diagnosed then as right shoulder tendinitis and bursitis.

The Yankees had hopes that Wang would return to the rotation, but he had to cut a July 20 tossing session short after feeling tenderness in his right biceps. He visited with both Dr. David Altchek and Yankees team physician Dr. Chris Ahmad to discuss the problem before seeking out Andrews, who also performed Wang’s 2001 shoulder surgery.

“There were no complaints at all about his shoulder until he came out of the [July 4] game,” Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland said. “So there were no warning signs that we knew of.”

This means the Yanks will have a decision to make on Wang in the off season. They could (and very likely will) non-tender him in the off season, rather than offer him arbitration. This will mean that any team could sign him to an incentive laden deal, but coming off the disastrous season he’s had AND shoulder surgery that team will have to think twice about it. The Yanks of course, can offer him the same type of deal. He’s had shoulder injuries before, so the Yanks know what they’re dealing with here from a medical standpoint. Wang’s key to his effectiveness is the exceptional velocity he generates on his sinker. If he loses even just a little of that due to injury, he becomes a very ordinary pitcher. So don’t be surprised if we have seen Wang pitch his last game in pinstripes.

On Aceves, lets just say that he’s downplaying his injury just like Bruney downplayed his injured elbow earlier this year and Damaso Marte downplayed his sore shoulder last year. You want a clubhouse where guys are a tight knit group who fight for each other and ignore minor aches and pains. But you don’t want players to play hurt, making their injuries worse. Its a fine line, and one the Yanks (like most teams) have trouble navigating.