Last week it was reported that Chris Capuano had what's called a torn "replacement tendon" in his pitching elbow (it's called that because he's already had Tommy John surgery once in his career). Given that the near universal fix for that injury is, in Capuano's case, a second TJ operation, everyone just assumed that would be the next step. Yeah, Chris Capuano's having none of that. Instead of surgery, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is reporting that he's going to try and rehab the thing for a month, then have exploratory surgery if necessary. It's a fairly insane route, as most everyone he's talked to has recommended surgery. If it manages to work, he'll certainly miss less time than he would with the Tommy John surgery, but if it doesn't, he's going to need surgery again anyways and he'll just miss more time.
I don't think this was impossible to see coming, actually. He called the thought of rehabbing the arm again "daunting," and the number of players that have had two Tommy John surgeries and been effective afterwards is a pretty slim list (actually, I'm not entirely sure that anyone is on the list at all). The chances of him being able to rehab this injury and pitch this year are also slim, but hey, it's worth a shot, right?
