Add this to the list of weird injuries that a cold and uncaring universe has foisted upon Texas Rangers players: Martin Perez broke his right (non-throwing) elbow last week in an “incident” with a bull at his ranch in Venezuela. He underwent surgery yesterday, and is expected to miss the first month of the season.
According to team officials, Perez was in a pen with some of his cattle, and a bull “moved in a way that startled him”. Perez tried to get out of the way and fell, landing on his right side, and fractured the radial head in his right elbow. He flew to Dallas Thursday, was evaluated by Dr. Keith Meister on Friday, and underwent surgery yesterday. Dr. Thomas Diliberti performed the procedure, in which the radial head was replaced with an artificial bone.
The option to replace the bone, rather than wait for it to heal, will allow for a quicker recovery. Perez apparently immediately had full range of motion after the surgery. Perez and his doctors both expect to beat the May 1st date set by team officials as a conservative estimate for his return. Perez will now return to Venezuela (perhaps enjoy a nice steak), and return to Arlington around the first week of January. He is expected to begin a throwing program in 3-4 weeks in Arlington and attend Spring Training without delay.
As for clauses in Perez’ contract that prohibit, ohhhhh, let’s say bullfighting, Jon Daniels said that the team always looks into it “as a matter of course, but at this point I don’t expect any repercussions.”
fivetoodrinker says
That is the most Rangers headline, probably, of all-time.
Michael Luna says
So he just fell down because he got startled? I dunno, sounds like a lotta…bull.
Levi Weaver says
perhaps “moved in a way that startled him” was intentionally vague. For instance, it would startle me if a bull ran into me, with its face.
Michael Luna says
The specifics weren’t as important to me. I was just using it to deliver a pun. Admittedly, it wasn’t my best work, but I was caught off guard by the injury and wasn’t prepared to make a call to the…bull pun.
corina22c says
I am somewhat concerned about the tag for “stupid injuries” and hoping that we won’t see more of these. It would be nice to be a Rangers fan and have nice things for a season. I’m still snakebit from 2014.