11:22pm: The Rockies have announced (on Twitter) that Gonzalez will indeed undergo season-ending surgery to repair the patellar tendon in his left knee. The operation will be performed by Dr. Tom Hackett next Monday.
8:08pm: Just one day after the news that superstar shortstop Troy Tulowitzki will miss the remainder of the season to undergo hip surgery, the Rockies are now facing the likely loss of their other best player for the remainder of the year. Carlos Gonzalez seems resigned to the fact that his season will end prematurely due to left knee surgery, reports Nick Groke of the Denver Post.
Rockies head athletic trainer Keith Dugger tells Groke that Gonzalez has been battling tendinitis in his knee since last season, and an MRI performed yesterday revealed that the injury had worsened in the past few weeks. Manager Walt Weiss, in particular, spoke definitively in regards to his stars’ injuries: “Everyone felt like that might be the case, that we might not have [Tulowitzki and Gonzalez] for the rest of the season, and unfortunately, that’s what it’s gonna be.”
Gonzalez himself didn’t offer a much more optimistic take, telling Groke: “I show up the first game and go 3-for-5 with a home run and I extend a single into a double. And then the next day I feel like I got hit by a bus. … It’s hard to play that way, when you go out there and feel like, ’I can’t move today. I just hope nobody hits the ball where I’m playing right now.'”
Both Tulowitzki and Gonzalez have seen their names pop up in trade rumors over the past month, but the injuries to both serve as a cautionary tale and a reminder to potentially interested parties. Neither player has been able to consistently stay on the field over the past few years. If this is the end of Gonzalez’s 2014 campaign, he will have averaged just 110 games over the past four seasons. Gonzalez has never played in more than 145 games — a total he reached back in 2010 when he finished third in the National League MVP voting.
The soon-to-be 29-year-old signed a seven-year, $80MM contract to be a building block for the Rockies, but the aforementioned 110-game average has come over the first four years of that contract, and he now has just three years remaining on that deal. The heavily backloaded contract still calls for Gonzalez to earn $53MM over the next three seasons — $16MM in 2015, $17MM in 2016 and $20MM in 2017. Those annual salaries are below market value for a full season of a healthy and effective Gonzalez, but they would present a risky investment for a team looking to acquire him via trade.
Overall, Gonzalez has batted .238/.292/.431 with 15 homers as he has battled knee injuries, a tumor in his index finger (which was surgically removed midseason) and a sprained ankle this season.
Wow. Can whomever has the voodoo doll with the Rockies jersey on please stop putting pins in it?
this happens to almost every team every few years
Really? I don’t think so… Tulo and Cargo are the main reason why anyone would even go to watch a Rockies game at this point. They are the face of the franchise. While most teams do face the diliema of having certain players go on the DL or perhaps lose a star to season ending surgery it is RARE for a team to lose their top 2 players to season ending surgery. Imagine the Marlins losing Stanton to season ending surgery after already losing Jose Fernandez to TJ?! The Rockies are just unlucky, no other way to phrase it.
Stanton missed 2 months last year and if Jose had TJS last year they would had missed the same percentage combined as Tulo and Cargo combined this year. anon_coward is right most teams experience similar situations every couple years. I’d say it was more unlucky if Tulo and Cargo weren’t always missing large chunks of the season. Both players average under 120 games a year for their Rockies career.
It really isn’t coming that two corner pieces go down with season (possibly more) ending injuries within the same week of eachother.
Injuries happen to all teams, but not normally like this.
Going into 2013 the Dodgers considered Matt Kemp and Hanley their two best offensive weapons and both played less than 90 games that year. Cargo and Tulo shut it down for the season because Colorado is the worst NL team. If they were in the playoff race both wouldn’t have opted for surgery without trying to get back for October.
Yes, but did Stanton lose those 2 months to season ending surgery?!
The point I’m making is that it is rare to lose your top 2 players to SEASON ENDING SURGERY. I’m not talking about DL stints throughout the season, or even missing time. My point was strictly on the season ending surgeries that Tulo & Cargo are faced with…So while the Dodgers did suffer from having players like Kemp & Hanley injured last year, neither of them at any point of the season were ever lost to SEASON ENDING SURGERY. Now, imagine if that was the case? Again, rare.
They only took season ending surgery because the Rockies season is over! They’re looking up at the Cubs, Phillies and D-Backs in the NL. Of course these guys opted for surgery, 2014 has been over for Colorado since the AS break.
It must be the Rocky Mountain air.
It’s not just those two. VERY far from it. Cuddyer’s been out almost all year, and Arenado missed two months. That’s their four best position players. And then you get to the pitching. Sometime soon they’ll run their 15th starting pitcher out there (let that sink in for a second … who’s your favorite team’s 15th best starting pitcher?). It’s really 16, since another guy got hurt before he could make it to the bigs. It’s odd in that we have two really historic injury situations in the same year — Rangers and Rockies — but make no mistake, they are NOT normal.
Most teams don’t build their team around injury prone players.
I don’t think “injury prone” exists. Cargo and Tulo have had a half dozen major injuries over the years, and none have been related to any others. World class athletes do not have a generalized tendency to different injuries. A specific one that recurs, sure, but that’s not what’s going on here.
I respectfully disagree. Some bodies can withstand a lot more than others. Those who get hurt more are “injury prone”. Brett Anderson comes to mind.
I believe it’s Joe Torre who will disagree with you. he wrote recently how today’s players work out too much and it results in injuries
This isn’t that rare and the only reason these guys opted for surgery so early is the Rockies being so far out of the playoffs. You bring up another team (Rangers) who have actually had it worse and that’s from only 2014. Last year Matt Kemp and Hanley played in less combined games and they were trying to get back in time for October. Greinke missed 6 weeks last year too. It’s not uncommon.
There’s also the part where Tulo and/or Cargo get injured almost literally every year. That doesn’t happen to every team.
no biggie, they can’t go any lower than last place
Rockies would be wise to trade CarGo for pitching. They really don’t need him anymore with the other OFs they have.
How are they going to trade him when he’s on the DL? Who is going to want to trade for him, now that he can’t help him this year?
I was referring to the offseason obviously and there will be plenty of teams willing to trade for him in hopes he plays like he did before.
The Rockies owe CarGo $16,000,000 in 2015, $17,000,000 in 2017 and $20,000,000 in 2018.
Colorado will go nowhere until they are out from under these contracts of this, albeit very good when they’re healthy but, injury-riddled duo.
They’re both bargains, really. And the team is up around $100m in salary now. I don’t think that’s their problem.
Well, Brady Aiken is available next year. That’s a plus right?
I think the other Texas team will end up picking him. The Rangers are in very poor shape.
I’m going to go on record now and say the Rockies will not win the 2014 World Series.
Bold prediction, man.
I try to live on the edge!
As someone once said, “What could possibly go wrong?”
Well they’ll get Matuella to pair with Grey.
Hopefully not. From what I have heard Matuella’s best pitch is a sweeping curveball which will NOT work as well at altitude. They need to get Dax Cameron first and foremost.
If I’m Arenado, I’m upping my medical insurance.
For now, it’s tanking time in Denver!
The Rockies want to guarantee a first overall pick next draft I see..
Cargo and Tulo represent the downside of locking up your young talent. If these guys aren’t at full strength, this team has a big uphill battle to deal with and these guys never seen to be at full strength.
He’s only 28 years old. The contract looked like a pretty smart deal to start with–the last year he will play at 31, and then someone else could have paid him for his mid-thirty years. It’s the Tulo deal that looked(s) crazier. The risk of not doing the early signing is that his performance gets him huge arbitration awards, and then you lose him anyway. Tough call.
It did look smart and it was, and certainly still is, a tough call. The problem is that the Rockies are dedicating around 30% of their payroll to two guys who should be major contributors, but can’t seem to stay healthy.
Locking up your core is an important thing to do for a team like the Rockies, but they’re options are pretty limited when that core can’t deliver.
At this point it probably would be wise for the Rockies to start considering the future without Tulo. Gage trade interest at the winter meetings, or possibly wait and pray that he’s healthy all the way the to trade deadline next season.
who in their right mind will trade for a guy owed $100 million and a history of injuries? not even the yankees would make that trade
When healthy (key word being “when”) he’s a top 10 player in the league. I bet there are plenty of teams who would take a chance on him.
It’s like the Final Destination team. Who’s next?
How are Tulo and CarGo even trade targets at this point? Sure, both are great players, but the injury track records couldn’t possibly get CO the sort of return they would likely want for their superstars.