News
Chavez clarifies earlier report on back
A's third baseman opting for rehab over another surgery
By Mychael Urban / MLB.com
05/19/09 6:51 PM ET
ST. PETERSBURG -- Inundated Tuesday morning with phone calls from friends who'd read a Bay Area newspaper report featuring a headline that blared, "ERIC CHAVEZ'S CAREER IN CRISIS," Oakland's third baseman spoke with MLB.com in the afternoon in an effort to turn down the volume on the doomsday alarms."I guess it kind of made it sound like I'm one step from shutting it down," Chavez said of a San Francisco Chronicle story about the status of his balky back. "I'm not."
Chavez, whose six-year, $66 million contract runs through 2010 and includes a club option for 2011, recently learned that what was a bulging disk in his lower back is now herniated.
In October 2007, Chavez underwent microdiscectomy surgery to repair his L4-L5 vertebrae. His L3-L4 is the current issue, and while another surgery is an option, it's one Chavez is determined to avoid at all costs.
"I'm not getting cut on again, period," said Chavez, who has had four surgeries -- including two on his right shoulder and one on his left shoulder -- since September 2007. "I don't want to just get opened up every time something goes wrong, so I'm going to rehab this the best I can and hope it all works out.
"I don't care if I have to rehab it for 20 months; I'm not getting surgery for this."
Twenty months, it should be noted, was just a random number Chavez tossed out to make his point. The A's transferred him to the 60-day disabled list on Tuesday to make room on the 40-man roster in conjunction with other moves, and Chavez is hopeful that he'll be ready to play again by the time he's eligible for activation.
He's rehabbing with a physical therapist in Arizona and could be cleared for baseball activity by this time next week.
"I've already been on the [15-day] DL for 25 days, and I'm not close right now, so it just made sense with what the team needs in terms of roster spots," Chavez said of the transfer. "All along we were kind of looking at maybe 50 days or so as being about when I'd be ready to come back, and we're still looking at that. But it won't be a bad thing if I'm ready and have an extra week or five days.
"Any timetable when you're talking about a back is shaky, anyway."
Chavez specifically wanted to clarify the Chronicle's suggestion that another setback would prompt him to submit to a surgery that would fuse his L4-L5 vertebrae to the L3-L4, effectively ending his career.
"I think that's a little misconstrued," Chavez, 31, said. "The fusion surgery is something we've known I'm going to need at some point down the road -- way down the road, as in when I'm 45 or 50 years old. And that hasn't changed. I'll need that surgery at some point, but not for a long time. Me blowing my back out again -- it could happen picking up my kid, taking out the trash, whatever -- doesn't change that timeline.
"I just want to make sure everyone's clear: I'm not getting surgery. I'm rehabbing. I hope to be back when I'm eligible, and if I hurt my back again after I come back, I'm still not getting surgery. I'll rehab it again."
Asked if the seemingly endless stream of bad news has prompted him to consider retirement over rehab, Chavez conceded that he has his woe-is-me moments but never lets them linger.
"It's obviously extremely frustrating, to the point where it's almost a joke, a really bad joke," he said. "But the organization made a big commitment to me, and as long as I'm under contract, I'm going to do everything I can to fulfill it by working as hard as I can to get back on the field and contribute."
Mychael Urban is a national writer for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
