3 Marlins done for year
No more games for Prado, Chen and Wittgren
DENVER — Winter is here for Martin Prado, WeiYin Chen and Nick Wittgren.
With days remaining in the Miami Marlins’ season, those three won’t play again in 2017.
Prado had held out hope that he would make an onfield cameo this week, but he has simply run out of time rehabilitating his right knee, he said.
Chen is again experiencing left elbow discomfort, and he’ll visit Los Angelesbased Dr. Neal ElAttrache in the coming days, manager Don Mattingly said.
Wittgren had surgery Tuesday to remove a bone chip from his right elbow. The Marlins expect him to be ready for spring training.
Chen’s news Tuesday came as the most surprising. He missed two months last season and four months this season with ongoing left elbow issues. He told the Sun Sentinel in April, before this year’s recurrence of the problem, he has a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow.
Now, after six innings in four relief appearances this month, Chen is out again.
The Marlins aren’t sure what to expect in 2018.
“I’m not really sure if he’s going to be able to get back next year,” Mattingly said. “We know [the tear] is there. It keeps coming back, it kind of gets extended a little bit.”
Mattingly again referenced the fact that other pitchers have managed to pitch through similar injuries, including the New York Mets’ Seth Lugo this year. The other option for UCL tears is Tommy John surgery, which typically keeps pitchers out for a year or more.
“Those are all his choices to make,” Mattingly said.
This is the second season of Chen’s five-year, $80 million deal with Miami.
Offseason for Prado
Prado, the Marlins’ third baseman and unofficial captain, usually takes three weeks off at the start of the offseason before resuming his workouts.
Not this time. “I already had time off,” Prado said.
Prado played in only 37 games this season, limited by two hamstring trains and late July surgery on his right knee. He hit .250 with a .279 OBP and .357 slugging percentage.
“I wasn’t able to recover or get my timing or play through a month,” Prado said.
Prado accompanied the Marlins on this road trip to ramp up his baseball activity, including taking ground balls and batting practice, and hoped to play this week in some capacity — if only to head into the offseason having played at the end of the year. That won’t happen. “If I’m playing at 60 percent, I’d rather go home,” Prado said. “What’s the reason of showing myself at 60 percent? ‘Oh, I feel bad for him. Oh, look at him, he’s limping.’
Wittgren has surgery
Wittgren landed on the disabled list July 28 with a right elbow strain. He had hoped to pitch by the end of the year, but while working through his throwing program in recent days he felt discomfort and wanted to have it looked at, Mattingly said. That’s when they discovered the bone chip.
Dr. James Andrews performed the surgery.
“The fact we’re able to do it now, we expect him to have a full throwing program before spring training,” Mattingly said.