News came out about an hour ago stating that Orioles third baseman Manny Machado has elected to have reconstructive knee surgery and will rehab the knee for 4-6 months. Here is the news from MLB.com's Brittany Ghiroli, via Twitter:
Manny Machado has elected to have reconstructive surgery on the MPFL of his left knee.
— Brittany Ghiroli (@Britt_Ghiroli) October 11, 2013
And here is more details on the surgery from Ghiroli's article on MLB.com:
Orioles third baseman Manny Machado will undergo reconstructive surgery on the medial patellofemoral ligament (MPFL) in his left knee on Monday, a procedure that will require a four-to-six month rehab and potentially delay his readiness next spring.
This will certainly affect his availability during spring training, as I am sure the team will take it slow with him. Let's assume he misses 6 months, that take us into mid-April. That is without him starting any baseball activities, I assume. Should that be the case, he will need at least a month of baseball activities, where he takes it slow at first, sees how the knee responds, increases activity, check out how the knee responds, rinse and repeat.
Then he would need at least a few weeks of game to get into game shape at the plate, in the field, running the bases. You see where I am going with this, right? It's not good.
I would not be at all surprised to see him out till early June. That is the pessimist in me. But, you know the Orioles are going to handle this injury with kid gloves, just like they handled Dylan Bundy's injury. They will be in no rush to bring him back too soon.
The optimistic view says he will be back participating in baseball activities in February, but, again, the team will take it slow with him. He could still miss parts of spring traing and start the season on the DL.
I have started working on my 2014 position rankings, and ranked him as my 8th ranked fantasy third baseman next season. This news will change his ranking, for now. We have plenty of time between now and spring training for updates on how his rehab is going, and we will provide updates when we hear them.
I own Machado in my AL only keeper league, and have to decide how big of a raise to give him this offseason. He is currently at $10, and I will more than likely just raise him $5 to $15, which allows me to keep him for the next two seasons at $15. Had he not suffered the knee injury, I was contemplating raising him to $20.
For more on Machado's surgery and the Orioles, make sure you check out Camden Chat, SB Nation's Orioles fan site.
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