Kole Calhoun has surgery

Remember when we didn’t think that Kole Calhoun’s injury seemed as serious at Ketel Marte’s? For after all, Calhoun made it off the field under his own steam, while Marte needed assistance. Good times. For Torey Lovullo announced to the media today that the veteran outfielder had a an operation on his damaged left leg. Specifically, a surgical excision of his damaged semitendinosus tendon.

A medical explanation can be found in this study and also this one. Note that “excision” means to be removed, not reattached or repaired. The second link seemed to indicate that the athlete referenced there, an Australian Rules Football player, was able to return to match play in 9 weeks. Torey could not offer any specific details on the procedure itself, nor the timeline for recovery. He encouraged everyone to google and research on their own at this juncture as he did not want to misspeak. There were no issues prior to the stolen base attempt, and the injury happened on that play.

However, speaking afterwards, GM Mike Hazen told Steve Gilbert that Calhoun could miss 6-8 weeks after the surgery. Though he cautioned this was a rough estimate given the almost non-existent sample of baseball players who have had this procedure. I imagine no two semitendinosus tendons are the same, and various times seem to have been suggested, from as short as 3-4 weeks, So, whatever. He’ll be back when he’s back, but it’s probably going to be June. In the meantime, expect Pavin Smith to keep getting starts. It’s another blow for the injury-plagued D-backs, who have yet to be able to play a single game with their “best” team. I graphed out what we’ve missed over the first month.

The closest we came was the weekend series at Chase against Cincinnati, when the team was only missing Ketel Marte. Of course, Lovullo rested Kelly on Saturday, and Cabrera and Calhoun on Sunday. Now, we are short three-eights of our “best” line-up, with Christian Walker, Marte and Calhoun all out. We should be getting Walker back before too long, with him and Tim Locastro scheduled to play games at the alternate site over the weekend.