Braves' Glavine may be finished after elbow injury

Legendary Atlanta Braves’ pitcher Tom Glavine may be facing the end of his career following a season ending torn flexor tendon suffered last Thursday against the Chicago Cubs.  Glavine has been hampered all season by arm ailments, and as a result has been largely ineffective as his 2-5 5.54 ERA in 13 games clearly underscores.   His injury was the latest blow to a Braves rotation that has been decimated by injuries, with their top three starters (Glavine, John Smoltz and Tim Hudson) all out for the year.

The start against Chicago, in which have gave up 7 runs in 4 innings of work, was his first since June 10th.  In the 4th inning his elbow began to stiffen, and he knew that it was more than a mere strain or discomfort from over exertion:  "I pretty much knew that this was going to be the case when I left here Thursday night. It didn't feel good, and that was different from my rehab starts." observed the 2 time Cy Young award winner with 305 major league wins.

Glavine will now wait for the results of an evaluation on Wednesday by noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Alabama.  Andrews is considered to be the best in the business, and his client list is a “who’s who” of professional athletics with names such as Shaq, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning.  The prognosis will determine whether Glavine will have surgery immediately and attempt to return for another year, or whether he’ll retire.  Should the injury require only surgery on the tendon, he’ll get it done ASAP and start his rehab immediately.  Should it require elbow ligament replacement (aka “Tommy John surgery”) which has a 12 month rehab timeframe he’ll most likely call it a career.

Though he’s completely dismissed any scenario where he’d get a “quick fix” to play again this year, as the Braves are in 4th place 12 games out, he has been vocal about his desire to finish his career in Atlanta.  Obviously his substandard performance this season isn’t the way he’d like to go out, and as a result would like to return for one more year in a Braves uniform.  The Braves haven’t made any guarantees that they’d offer him a one year deal, and clearly their level of interest in doing so also rests on the result of Dr. Andrew’s evaluation.

Glavine has been very forthright in his assessment of his performance this season and his future in the game:

"By no means do I want to go through another year with what I'm going through now. But at the same time, I don't think I want my career to end this way, either. I think that lends me to think I want to pitch next year.”

Making the decision more difficult is Glavine’s belief that his struggles this season have been entirely caused by his elbow problems:

"When I was healthy, I pitched well. When I wasn't, I didn't. That makes it harder to say I can't do it anymore."