Mitch Haniger has undergone two surgeries in the past several weeks — core surgery and a microdiscectomy — and while there’s no clear timetable on his return to the diamond, the Mariners’ right fielder offered some additional context on his injury today while speaking to reporters. MLB.com’s Greg Johns tweets that Haniger can’t do any lifting or much activity at all for the first month following the microdiscectomy on his back. Haniger fully expects to play in 2020, tweets Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times, but he’s limited to walking as his only means of exercise at the moment.
Suffice it to say, that’s not a great outlook and doesn’t bode well for a return in the early portion of the 2020 season. After that initial month has elapsed, Haniger will surely need to build up some strength before returning to full baseball activities, and he will of course need an eventual minor league rehab assignment to get up to game speed.
The level of escalation in Haniger’s injury troubles has been stark. The 29-year-old (28 at the time) sustained a ruptured testicle when he fouled a ball into himself last June. That alone is gruesome enough, but Haniger revealed today that he tore the adductor muscle attachment last summer while rehabbing that injury (Twitter link via Divish). That issue went undiagnosed, leading to the herniated disc in his back and the microdiscectomy that is now limiting him to a walking regimen. (Haniger also provided Divish with a more … colorful? … description of the injury, courtesy of his surgeon.)
That sequence of events — particularly the lack of diagnosis on the adductor issue — will surely be a frustrating revelation for Mariners fans, but Haniger explained today that he felt healthy all offseason long and only incurred a setback upon resuming baseball activities.
With Haniger on the shelf for an indeterminate period of time, the Mariners will have themselves something of a competition in right field. Jake Fraley, Braden Bishop, waiver claim Jose Siri and non-roster invitee Carlos Gonzalez will all be in the mix for playing time alongside projected left fielder Kyle Lewis and center fielder Mallex Smith.
Just call up Kelenic in May and be aggressive with Julio or deal him for a controllable SP. The future starts now.
My guess is Kelenic and Rodriguez don’t factor in. They have options for the outfield and rotation. Not good options but options. Kelenic comes up when they feel he’s ready and Rodriguez does not factor into this season unless it’s a cup of coffee only if he has a monster milb season but probably doesn’t this year.
the back is the toughest body part to over come. just a little movement can knock it back out of place. When he does come back it will be day to day on if he can play. Even DH can knock out a back with a swing.
You’re back at it.
Making fun of a serious back injury is low. karma will come get you for that.
Arc is sensitive…similar to a back injury
I just figured he was a whiner that hasnt figured out people dont care about his comment.
Just think people like you are the real snowflakes that act tough behind a computer but say nothing face to face.
[yawn] Whatever, whiner.
This is a huge bummer, but we aren’t contending this year anyway. Might as well take it really slow and make sure he is 100% for 2021. I don’t know if I see future contributors in Bishop or Fraley, but I’d love to be proven wrong. Will also be nice to see Siri get some playing time.
Like I said. should of traded him last year
That outfield of Rodriguez, Kelenic and the presumed Drew Waters would be whoa.
Where’d you see that the Braves were offering Waters? Where’d you see that the Braves and Mariners were having serious trade talks? The only confirmed aspect of Haniger trade talks was that no team was willing to meet Dipotos asking price.
I suspect they would have traded Haniger for Waters in a heartbeat. Rumors at the time were that no one was offering top prospects for Haniger.
Exactly
I was there at the thick of the Haniger to the Braves the offseason before the injury.
Dipoto was rumoured to state that he wouldn’t move Haniger unless he was blown away. You can say that he was just stating the party line that every GM says but the fact that he WASN’T moved does imply that he meant it.
Additionally, what should I really believe anyway? That Dipoto didnt want to move Haniger because he wasn’t getting the blow away package that he required reported by industry analysts or that he WOULD have moved him for ONE top prospect (Waters at the time wasn’t a top prospect) that I never heard from anyone until now?
At least fangraphs had Waters in the top 100 at the time. Dipoto said something along the lines of 2 top prospects (whatever that means) and change at the time and he planned on building around Haniger otherwise. I had thought that was just him posturing but maybe not. Don’t actually claim to have more info than that.
I think an offer of a single top 100 should have initiated a trade even though his value was pretty high at that time. I did see rumors which I havemt been able to dig up that he wasn’t getting enough interest but maybe its more that no one was stupid enough to offer what he asked and he wouldn’t budge.
I got the impression at the time that he was getting lowballed and just held onto Haniger. Again I’d hope a top 100 would have been enough and suspect he didn’t even get that.
Jerry Dipoto: “Darn it. We should have listened to RumNCoke about Hanniger last year.”
Front Office Employee: “Who is RumNCoke?”
DiPoto: “Dont you know?? He knows all about player health outcomes.”
Sigh..posters like this. So you predicted Haniger would be on the injured list a ruptured testicle.
If your stupid argument is that they should have traded him because he COULD get injured then why would any team keep any player?
Hanigers scotch…no smell, no tell. Why it’ll be our little secret.
“H-A-single N-I…..”
afsooner – gave you a thumbs up on the off chance you were doing wordplay and not just getting it wrong ( was hennigans scotch if i remember correctly.. which is always a 50/50 shot lately)
Say you got a big job interview and you’re a little nervous. Well, throw back a couple of shots of Hennigan’s, and you’ll be as loose as a goose and ready to roll in no time.
I feel so bad for Mitch, but I do have a question. How does a torn adductor muscle go undetected so long? Adductor muscles are part of the groin and if anyone has ever had a pulled groin muscle, you know how painful that can be. With a tear, it’s basically the same pain but it never fully goes away. One would think his doctors would be concerned after 4-6 weeks of groin pain that didn’t go away, but maybe he’s so tough that he just never complained about it. Tough break all around.
What a series of unfortunate events. Never like to see a guy’s career get setback so significantly due to injury.
Gone forever, Mitch Haniger.
Hope he recovers thoroughly, really good player.
Why not sign Puig for everyday RF for now? Reasonable cost, predictable production with consistency the last 3 years. Build value, trade to contender when Haniger, or one of the young guys, is ready.
Ahh that’s fine. It only bothers him when he tries to do any baseball-related activities. This is fiiinnnneeee.