Mariners have no timetable for Mitch Haniger return after 2nd surgery in 3 weeks
After missing more than half of the 2019 season with injuries, and undergoing core surgery last month, Mitch Haniger will have to wait even longer to return to the Seattle Mariners active roster.
The 29-year-old outfielder posted a photo to his Instagram account Thursday night, showing him in a hospital bed confirming his second surgery in three weeks.
“Not how I imagined heading into the 2020 season but I’m really excited to start this recovery process and build myself back up,” Haniger wrote. “I’ll do whatever it takes to come back even better than I’ve ever been!”
Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto told reporters Friday in Peoria that the second surgery, a microdiscectomy which was performed Thursday in Los Angeles, was to repair a vertebrate. Following his initial sports hernia surgery in January, Haniger developed lower back pain, ultimately prompting the second surgery.
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“I hope this is the last hurdle he’s got to get over, (so he can) keep moving his career back in the right direction,” Mariners manager Scott Servais told reporters in Arizona. “It happens to a number of players. There’s adversity. There’s things you have to go through throughout your career.
“You find out a lot about yourself when you go through those things. Nobody’s been challenged more than he has, certainly here in the last, almost a year now. Crazy stuff has been going on.
“I empathize with the player and his family — because that’s what he does. He’s a baseball player, and he’s really good at it.”
Haniger was originally expected to miss 6-8 weeks, including most of spring training and likely the beginning of the season, but his absence will now be longer.
There is no timetable for his return, though Mariners do not expect him to miss the entirety of the 2020 season, and are hopeful he will be back in camp as early as next week to continue rehabilitating.
Haniger’s struggles with injuries during the past seven months seem to all be linked to the pitch he fouled off himself last June, which ultimately led to a season-ending surgery to repair a ruptured testicle.
He returned to play in three minor league games in August on rehab assignment, but dealt with continual lower back tightness that stemmed from the original injury, and never returned to the field for the Mariners.
Haniger appeared in just 63 games for Seattle last season, slashing at .220/.314/.463 with 13 doubles, 15 homers and 32 RBI, and led the league with 81 strikeouts the day he was injured.
His offseason program was on track until January, Dipoto said last month, when Haniger aggravated his core while working out in the Bay Area.
Anticipating Haniger would already likely be absent from the lineup Opening Day before this setback, the Mariners loaded up their spring training roster with young outfielders to compete for their third outfield spot.
Mallex Smith will resume his starting role in center field, with rookie Kyle Lewis the likely starter in left after a strong month with the big-league club in September. But, with Haniger out indefinitely, the starting job in right field is suddenly open.
Rookies Braden Bishop and Jake Fraley both appeared for the Mariners last season and should contend for the spot.
Fraley slashed at .298/.365/.545 with 27 doubles, five triples, 19 homers, 80 RBI and 22 stolen bases in 99 games between Double-A and Triple-A last season, and looks like the front runner for the job as spring training begins.
He reached the majors in late August, but played in just 12 games before a wrist injury ended his season.
“He had an incredible season,” Servais said. “He got to the big leagues, he was out of gas, he struggled a little bit, then he got hurt. I wanted to make sure he was in a good frame of mind, and he is. He looks great.
“He’s got probably 15 pounds on him of really good strength. It’s kind of what he looked like last year in spring training.”
Bishop appeared in 27 games with the Mariners last season in multiple stints, and is a sure-handed outfielder, but never had a chance to develop consistency at the plate after suffering a lacerated spleen in June that cost him three months of the season.
The Mariners have also signed veteran outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, who is entering his 13th season in the majors, to a minor league contract to compete for a roster spot, and claimed outfielder Jose Siri off waivers from the Reds after news of Haniger’s injury first broke in January.
Minor league outfielders Eric Filia and Luis Liberato also earned non-roster invites, and top prospects Jarred Kelenic and Julio Rodriguez are on Seattle’s major league spring training roster for an extended look, but aren’t expect to open the season with the big-league club.
This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 8:22 AM with the headline "Mariners have no timetable for Mitch Haniger return after 2nd surgery in 3 weeks."
