Mariners’ Marco Gonzales to have season-ending surgery on forearm

Aug 13, 2023, 1:34 PM | Updated: 1:36 pm

Mariners' Marco Gonzales pitches against the Oakland Athletics May 23, 2023. (Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)

(Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)

The Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle Mariners left-hander Marco Gonzales will undergo nerve surgery and will miss the rest of the season.

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Gonzales will have surgery Aug. 22 to decompress the anterior interosseous nerve in his left forearm. The 31-year-old hopes to recover by spring training.

“This comes after a lengthy process of trying to find answers,” Gonzales said Sunday. “This gives me the best chance to move forward and get past this so it doesn’t happen any further.”

Marco Gonzales will have season ending surgery to decompress the nerve in his forearm. Finding answers was a long and frustrating process to find answers w/the problem. He tried everything to avoid surgery and get back sooner. This gives him the best chance to be ready for 2024.

— Shannon Drayer (@shannondrayer) August 13, 2023

Gonzales was 4-1 with a 5.22 ERA in 10 starts. He hasn’t pitched since May 28, when he felt discomfort in the forearm after throwing 5 2/3 innings against Pittsburgh. At the time, the Mariners thought Gonzales had a forearm strain.

“It became harder and harder to get loose each inning,” Gonzales said. “I felt some achy soreness in my forearm, in the middle of it. Basically ever since then each time I go to throw a baseball I feel this aching, sore pain in the middle of my forearm.”

Gonzales said throughout the summer that every time he went through a treatment plan and started throwing, pain remained and the underlying cause wasn’t clear. He worked with specialists over the past few weeks in a process he described as “popping the hood” when the issue with the nerve was found.

He has a $12 million salary next year in the final season of a $30 million, four-year contract. The deal includes a $15 million team option for 2025 with no buyout.