ATLANTA – Cincinnati Reds reliever Tony Santillan, who struggled this season after being a key contributor to the Reds' playoff staff last year, faces possible hip surgery this week with an undetermined timeline.
Santillan, who landed on the injured list
because of a left hip labral tear, was in Nashville seeing a hip specialist as the Reds opened a three-game series this week against the Braves in Atlanta."Pretty good chance he has surgery on his hip Thursday," manager Terry Francona said. "It's not a done deal, but pretty good chance."
Santillan, who has struggled much of the season, began experience hip pain early this month in Los Angeles, Francona said. Across his last
two appearances, Sept. 14 and 17, he walked four in two innings.
Whether surgery would mean a rehab process that seeps into next season, Francona said it's impossible to know, until they know the extent of the surgery, assuming he has surgery.
Santillan, who had a 2.44 ERA in 80 games pitched last season, has as 6.42 ERA this year in 44 games with a career-high 11 home runs allowed and the highest walk rate of his career (6.2 per nine innings).
He also missed two months from late June to late August because of an oblique strain.
Francona calls the 6-foot-3, 285-pound Santillan one of the tougher and hardest-working pitchers on the staff.
"It's probably improbable, but his heart is probably bigger than his body," Francona said. "I believe that."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds reliever Tony Santillan faces likely hip surgery
