Fixing Joe Nathan

The Minnesota Twins came into this years Spring Training sessions looking like a lock for the Central Division title and a possible long playoff run. They have the best line-up they've had in decades. They have the guy that has been statistically the best closer in the game the past six years. And they have a young and hopefully improving pitching staff.

On Saturday a big chunk of their team fell apart. Joe Nathan (the guy I mentioned above as being the best closer in the game) tore a ligament in his pitching elbow during a spring training game. The typical procedure for this is to watch and treat the injury for two weeks and then see if surgery is needed. This is the path the Twins are apparently taking with most people saying Joe will almost certainly need surgery. This route would keep Joe from playing this year, and with his age being 36, it might be a career ending injury.

I've always been one who thinks the closing position in baseball is very much over-rated. But you simply can't take someone who has dominated the position off your roster and not suffer a loss. If Joe is out for the year, it wouldn't be difficult to see an extra 5-8 losses this year as you couldn't expect anyone else to do as well as he has. And with how close the Central Division has been the last few years, those 5-8 games are beyond important.

But what if the Twins could have Joe back, say, in the middle of May? There is a new procedure that doctors are using that could have Joe closing games again that early in the season. The procedure is called Platelet-Rich Plasma therapy. This procedure is so cutting-edge that there still needs to be much more research done before it becomes mainstream.

The procedure centers around using the patients own blood. Their blood is drawn and spun to isolate the platelets. I'll state here that I have absolutely no idea what that means, but the platelets are 10 times more concentrated than in normal blood which helps them clot and promote healing. The method, which is strikingly straightforward and easy to perform, centers on injecting portions of a patient’s blood directly into the injured area, which catalyzes the body’s instincts to repair muscle, bone and other tissue. Most enticing is that the technique appears to help regenerate ligament and tendon fibers, which could shorten rehabilitation time and possibly obviate surgery.

To date, there is been just one other MLB relief pitcher that has had this procedure done, and this pitcher was back throwing in two months. The pitchers name is Takashi Saito. He was the Los Angeles Dodgers closer during the 2008 season and suffered his injury in the middle of July. He was the Dodgers closer again during that seasons playoffs. Not only is Saito a relief pitcher like Joe is, but he was 38 years old when the procedure was done. Joe Nathan is 36. Having elbow surgery might not just put Joe out for the season, at his age it might end his career.

As I mentioned, this is still a very new procedure, and the procedure as it is now performed fails over 20% of the time. The only downside of it failing is Joe would then get the Tommy John surgery and be shelved for a season.

To wrap up, I don't see why they wouldn't look into this procedure. If Joe was 26 instead of 36, yeah, you do the surgery. But if the elbow hasn't healed at the end of this two weeks of rest, I think this option is too good to pass up. At that point you're looking at surgery where he'd be out for the season. Or you could try something new and possibly be back in two months, and helping what looks like an exciting season for the Twins close out on a good note.