Cory Wade Set For Shoulder Surgery

If that's not bad enough, it's exploratory, which means they don't even know what's wrong yet.

Dodgers reliever Cory Wade will undergo exploratory shoulder surgery Wednesday and be sidelined at least three months, but reliever Hong-Chih Kuo was able to play catch without discomfort when testing an elbow that forced him to be scratched from Sunday's start in Taiwan.

Wade said he was told by doctors that two recent MRIs confirmed there were no labral or rotator cuff tears. He said his discomfort might be coming from the acromioclavicular joint that links the collarbone with the top of the shoulder. Doctors also will search for any loose bodies in the joint.

This is why you never believe what players say in Spring Training fluff pieces. Remember this from a couple of weeks ago?

Note: At least there's good news in there about Hong Chih Kuo.

Wade is looking once again to prove he's one of them. He said he's now healthy enough to do it.

"This is the best I've felt since '08," the 26-year-old right-hander said. "I felt all right last year, but nowhere near what I needed to be. My shoulder is healthy; my back is strong. I look forward to this year, and I'm ready to show I'm capable of pitching."

Oh.

As far as the injury goes, I know i've been beating this drum solo for a while, but I think he was another Joe Torre victim.

Wade has had sporadic "pinching" in his shoulder since his rookie season of 2008, when he made 61 appearances and pitched 87 innings, 71 1/3 of those in the big leagues while compiling a 2.27 ERA. But he also spent three weeks that August on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation.

I'm not saying it's definitely his fault, but...it seems highly possible.

In the early going, Torre showed very little confidence in the rookie, and I can't blame him. Wade came out of almost nowhere and didn’t have much of a minor league track record, much less MLB experience. However, as the year went on, Wade continued to turn in excellent performances in his lesser roles and slowly earned Torre’s confidence. Around this time, Proctor was completely losing effectiveness and then went down to injury. Since Torre no longer had a guy to abuse in every situation, he choose Wade to fill that void in his life. Starting in June, Wade began to be used in almost every other game for a good 2 months, all while averaging over an inning an appearance. He ended up throwing 17 1/3 innings in June, and then 15 1/3 innings in July, before finally succuming to a tired arm in August.

Overall, Wade is a very promising bullpen arm that anybody would love to have as a 6th or 7th inning option. However, the way Torre falls in love with certain pitchers, it's not a stretch to say Wade's career could be in jeopardy sooner than later. I really hope Torre eases off the kid eventually, but with the way he continues to handle Proctor even now, Torre seems unfazed by the injury risk. Considering that Wade has already succumbed during a 2 month trial run as a Proctor replacement, I don't see the situation getting much better for him.

Did Torre learn his lesson after Wade's 2008 injury and 2009 Spring Training health? Nope. So i'm not saying...i'm just saying.