Carlos Gonzalez has knee surgery, could miss start of 2015 spring training

Carlos Gonzalez has endured a miserable 2014 season. It has been a campaign marred by injuries, one that was ultimately ended by the news that he would require season-ending knee surgery.

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A most unfortunate theme has emerged when it comes to CarGo’s injuries: each surgery reveals a problem that is described as “fatty.” Just when you thought you had shook the image of the “fatty mass with tentacles” that was in CarGo’s finger, now we have this explanation of what was wrong with the patella tendon in his knee from Keith Dugger, as passed along by Thomas Harding of MLB.com):

"“The fatty pad [bursa sac] was beat up and torn up,” Dugger said. “they cleaned that out. The middle third of the patella tendon was where the actually diseased tissue was. They cut that out and sewed it back together.”"

In this case it wasn’t that something was a fatty that wasn’t supposed to be, but rather that the fatty part didn’t look right. Either way, that sounds very unpleasant.

There is reportedly a lot of uncertainty with the timetable for CarGo’s return. Dugger indicated that Gonzalez will be in a “straight-leg knee immobilizer” for at least three weeks. Just in case you have any doubt how much that will limit Gonzalez and make him uncomfortable, here is a picture that the outfielder posted to Twitter:

With that, there is uncertainty about CarGo’s availability to start 2015 spring training. Also from Dugger, as passed along by Harding:

"“We really won’t know how he is going to be until that 4 1/2- to 5-month mark,” Dugger said. “He might be a little delayed for Spring Training, but our goal is to get him there and get him ready.“Nothing is a cure-all. The closest thing to a cure-all is the rehab.”"

Here’s the dark cloud over the dark cloud in this situation: CarGo’s cap hit this season is $10.5 million. That takes a huge jump to $16 million for 2015, followed by $17 million in 2016 and a cool $20 million in 2017 (info from Spotrac.com).

The Rockies must make a decision with CarGo, Tulo, or both. It might be that CarGo’s health sapped his value enough that the Rockies would not have received much in a trade for him this season anyway. But if they did turn down a chance to deal him before his contract got richer and before this latest injury, they might find themselves regretting it in the seasons to come.

Let’s all hope against hope that CarGo successfully rehabs and is ready to go for the start of the 2015 season. But with the combination of this injury, the finger injuries, the worsening play in the outfield, the plummeting trade value, and the big bump in salary, you’ll forgive me for not finding much to like about CarGo’s situation right now.