The Rangers have announced that Prince Fielder has suffered a “secondary herniation” of a disc in his neck, and will have season-ending surgery. It’s not the same disc that was repaired in 2014, but is just above.
The initial diagnosis was made last week in Anaheim, when Fielder met with Dr. Robert Watkins, who recommended surgery. Fielder flew back to Texas and met today with Dr. Drew Dossett, who performed the prior surgery.
The surgery has not been scheduled, but Rangers GM Jon Daniels said he expects it to be within the next week or so.
Fielder was the 2015 Comeback player of the year after returning from his first surgery, hitting .305 with 23 home runs and 98 RBI. But it was his strong first half that carried the campaign. After the All Star Game, he hit just .264 with 9 home runs.
Fielder had performed relatively poorly this season as well, batting .212 with 8 home runs in 89 games.
“I’m not going to make any assumptions,” Rangers Manager Jeff Banister said in his office. “I just know that from the post- All Star time last year through the playoffs, and then the inconsistency of this season, just the challenges… there were times he would show you a spark or two, and then it would seem to evaporate on him. So, I don’t know that this year, you can really say ‘hey this was the guy that we had seen’. We’d see small samples and stretches, but nothing consistent.”
There has been some fear that this surgery could signal the end of Fielder’s career. Daniels was not comfortable speculating on that, but admitted that spinal surgery is “a real deal”. Daniels also indicated that this news would not impact their trade deadline strategy; that any potential deals would be focused on pitching.Here is video of Jon Daniels making the announcement:
