Brennen Davis Has Back Surgery; Update: Plans to Play This Year

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[CubinNY]

That explains a lot. Good speed to health.

[Andy]

Well, at least we know that needing back surgery at this early an age isn't a harbinger for long-term problems or anything

[Ding Dong Johnson]

The first time I had back surgery I was in a bar 2 days later and using no pain meds. I expect to see him return by next weekend.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Well, at least we know that needing back surgery at this early an age isn't a harbinger for long-term problems or anything

 

This from Sharma's piece seems to leave a decent amount of room for optimism:

 

Davis hadn’t played at Triple-A Iowa since May 3, when he was placed on the injured list with what was described as tightness in his lower back.

 

Davis was administered an epidural to try and relieve the issue but the problems only seemed to get worse over time. He was experiencing pain down his legs and sciatica-like symptoms. Multiple MRIs failed to give a proper diagnosis leading to the decision to undergo surgery. The procedure revealed a vascular formation that was pushing on a nerve causing the pain in his legs.

 

The Cubs believe they’ve avoided a truly bad scenario as they were able to identify the issue without too much delay and determine that there were no disc problems, structural damage or anything that would suggest lingering long-term issues. A full recovery is expected for Davis, although a timetable for his return hasn’t been laid out as he only recently underwent surgery.

 

 

Davis wasn't exactly the picture of health prior to this season though so being concerned about his long term health is justified.

[itisallpartoftheplan]

Brennen is relaxed while liking tweets about Goldschmidt hitting homers against the Cubs.

[d_money]

Classic Cubs

[Irrelevant Dude]

Back surgery is definitely scary, but it sounds promising that there were no structural issues. This probably pushes his MLB timeline back at least a full year, but let's hope he can come back next year with no long term effects.

[Bertz]

 

!!!

[itisallpartoftheplan]

 

Davis will begin running progression next week and wrote that he’ll begin baseball activity “shortly after.” Davis added that everything will be based off how he's feeling and when trainers believe he's ready to return.

[We Got The Whole 9]

I have words to eat on that one. They are thinking AFL at earliest, right?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

I have words to eat on that one. They are thinking AFL at earliest, right?

 

Iowa’s season goes till Sept 28th so I think Iowa isn’t out of the realm of possibilities.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

“We’re hoping that we’re going to get him back in some games in August,” Hawkins said. “It’s kind of a unique situation with him, had some odd back issues early on in the season, wasn’t playing quite as well as we hoped.

 

We couldn’t quite figure out what it was. It turned out to be a non-structural issue on his back. Now, he had to have surgery, which anytime you have any type of surgery, that’s serious. But it was a lot less serious than we initially had feared. So we’re hopeful to get him back in games. He’s already out in Arizona starting some baseball activity. So we’ll get him some games in August and then think about what we can do this offseason, whether it be something like a fall league or winter ball, just to get those at-bats back. But he’s progressing well.”

[Bertz]

 

“We’re hoping that we’re going to get him back in some games in August,” Hawkins said. “It’s kind of a unique situation with him, had some odd back issues early on in the season, wasn’t playing quite as well as we hoped.

 

We couldn’t quite figure out what it was. It turned out to be a non-structural issue on his back. Now, he had to have surgery, which anytime you have any type of surgery, that’s serious. But it was a lot less serious than we initially had feared. So we’re hopeful to get him back in games. He’s already out in Arizona starting some baseball activity. So we’ll get him some games in August and then think about what we can do this offseason, whether it be something like a fall league or winter ball, just to get those at-bats back. But he’s progressing well.”

 

It's certainly not the modal outcome, but if Brennen indeed gets back to Iowa by the end of August him opening up next year in MLB seems very on the table? A month at Iowa plus going to the AFL would likely get him between 40-50 more games this year. The Cubs do not historically park guys at Iowa for long, Bryant and Rizzo being the exception (though those were pretty clear service time games).

 

Like he'd have to hit pretty much the entire rest of the year and next ST, but it's fun that it's at least on the table again as a best case scenario.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

[CaliforniaRaisin]