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.

MATT SLOCUM/AP Wei-Yin Chen’s shelving was the biggest surprise but he is having problems again with his left elbow.