Scott Merkin of whitesox.com reported Tuesday that White Sox closer David Robertson had surgery to clean up a meniscus issue in his left knee that had been bothering him for a while.
That’s great for David, knee surgery is awesome and I try to get one once per month if I can find time away from family obligations. However, it does spring a certain callback to mind. Normally callbacks are great and humorous, but…well, we’ll see how this one goes.
From Merkin again, on July 9:
“David Robertson will not pitch for the White Sox before the All-Star break, as the closer has been sidelined with a high strain in his left leg near the buttocks area.
The soreness began for Robertson after he pitched Wednesday night against the Yankees and continued on into Thursday’s off-day. White Sox manager Robin Ventura was apprised of the situation Friday, and the relievers knew Robertson was not available against the Braves.
A MRI taken for precautionary measures confirmed the ‘mild strain in a bad spot,’ according to Robertson.”
When Robertson returned later in July, he quickly had two awful outings that tanked his season line permanently. He gave up four runs, including an Adam Lind walk-off in literally his first game back against Seattle, and a week later he had the infamous three home run inning against Detroit, when he allowed half the dingers he gave up in the entire season in the span of six batters.
Obviously it’s cherry picking to map how he did after his worst moment, but Robertson posted a 1.64 ERA for the rest of the year, struck out 26 in 22 innings, and did not get taken deep again, even if his control remained bananas.
Pitching terribly around the emergence of an injury issue is about as strong of a correlation as we get from this game, and that certainly seems to be what bothered Robertson in July, so add that to one of the 300 arrows that pierced the corpse of the Sox playoff hopes. I had a full uppercut worth of outrage to unleash about Robertson laboring through a meaningless second half with a compromised left leg, but his erratic effectiveness and the relatively minor nature of his procedure (his orthopedist probably made still made his noon tee time after this operation after) admittedly has a blunting effect.
Robertson was likely not 100 percent down the stretch of a meaningless season without even arbitration or contract incentives to justify the push, but the ill-effects seem to manageable. He’ll be 32 next April, reliever performance is fickle and getting operated on is never a great sign, but let’s place this in the “reasons Robertson can bounce back in 2017 and hastily replacing him for more money might not be worth it” file for now.
Now, sit back and enjoy Game 7, and if you’re not prescribed medication for hypertension, imagine sweating out Robertson working three innings with a championship on the line.
Lead Image Credit: Ken Blaze // USA Today Sports Images
I doubt he gets much back in return, but is there any trade value here at all?