The Daily Kentuckian newspaper reports that Brandon Webb will have surgery on his shoulder tomorrow, officially ending his 2009 season. Given the recovery time for the procedure is potentially up to a year, this probably also ends any chance of the Diamondbacks picking up his 2010 season, ending the time of the Cy Young winner with Arizona.
More details and analysis after the jump.
You probably want to start off with our piece on labrum surgery - while there's no certainty this is actually the cause of Webb's shoulder problems, it still seems the most likely candidate, and gives you an idea of the kind of things which will be entailed, and what the recovery process is going to be like. You may also want to view the announcement of the recent setbacks to Webb's recovery.
This news does make the Diamondbacks' decision concerning his 2010 option a great deal simpler. If he had come back in September, but the results had not been the Webb of old, it would have been a tricky choice for GM Josh Byrnes - pay $8.5m for a potentially-shaky ace, or turn him loose and risk another team getting a top of the line pitcher. The severity of the surgery will play into the decision, but now, it doesn't look likely that Webb will be pitching for anyone on Opening Day 2010.
It's a real shame. If it is the end, he'll be ranked second in franchise history for wins (87), strikeouts (1065), shutouts (8) and innings pitched (1319.2), while Webb is third in ERA (3.27) and complete games (15). But we'll save the full obituary until all hope is truly extinguished.