⏩ Trevor Rosenthal:
A’s closer “contemplating” surgery.
A’s closer Trevor Rosenthal is considering whether to have thoracicoutlet surgery, a procedure that likely would shelve the righthander for at least several months, manager Bob Melvin said.
Rosenthal saw vascular surgeon Dr. Gregory Pearl on Tuesday in Dallas after starting the season on the injured list with what the A’s termed right shoulder inflammation. Rosenthal, 30, signed a oneyear, $11 million freeagent deal with Oakland in February.
“Surgery’s on the table,” Melvin said Wednesday morning. “He’s contemplating it right now. I think he’s talking to people close to him and he should have a decision on that shortly.”
Thoracicoutlet syndrome occurs when nerves or blood vessels between the shoulder and neck are compressed. It can result in weakness or numbness of the hand, pain and fatigue. Pitchers can be more susceptible because of repetitive overthehead throwing motions. Melvin previously said that Rosenthal was “just not bouncing back” from his outings during spring training.
Surgery for the injury involves removal of the first rib and two small scalene muscles and scar tissue around the affected nerves, according to the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. A pitcher is unlikely to be ready to return until at least 12 weeks after surgery in a bestcase scenario.
Pearl was an author on a 2016 study that looked at the performance of majorleague pitchers before and after surgery for neurogenic thoracic-outlet syndrome. It found 10 of 13 pitchers who had the surgery between July 2001 and July 2014 “achieved a sustained return to MLB” and their performance “revealed no significant differences” after returning in metrics such as ERA and strikeouttowalk rate.
A FanGraphs study in 2018 found 27 pitchers who had undergone the surgery since 2001. That group averaged a total of 218 innings postsurgery compared to 657 innings prior. That study did not draw a clear pattern between preand postsurgery performance but noted that just five of 21 pitchers who returned lowered their ERA relative to the league across any sample and 10 of 21 saw their adjusted ERA rise by more than 20%.
Matt Harvey, Phil Hughes and Chris Carpenter are among recent pitchers who had the surgery. Chris Archer had the surgery in June and is pitching for Tampa Bay this season.
This would not be the Rosenthal’s first significant surgery. He had Tommy John surgery in 2017 to repair a partially torn UCL and missed the 2018 season. He compiled a 13.50 ERA in 151⁄3 innings in 2019 but rebounded in the short 2020 season, recording a 1.90 ERA in 232⁄3 innings and ranking in the top 1% of majorleague pitchers in average fastball velocity. In four outings this spring, Rosenthal’s fastball sat mostly at 9596 mph and peaked at 98 mph.
The A’s brought in Rosenthal, a 2015 AllStar with St. Louis, to close after Liam Hendriks left in free agency. Jake Diekman is the primary ninthinning option for now, but the lefthander also could be used in the eighth if needed for matchups. Bullpen roles are “still kind of evolving,” Melvin said.
“I’d love to be able to say, ‘OK, here are your seven, eight and nine guys,’ and then kind of mix and match before that,” Melvin said, “but we’re not there yet.”