Washington Nationals pitcher Jason Marquis is scheduled for surgery Friday to remove bone chips from his pitching elbow. He’s expected to be sidelined until August.
Marquis, a free agent this offseason, had been vocal about wishing that the Mets had signed him.
“I wanted to come home to New York to play in front of family and friends — you’ve got people on your side,” Marquis, a Staten Island native, said during spring training. “Washington showed aggressiveness. They wanted me.”
Marquis made a rehab start for Class-A Potomac on Tuesday night and said his ailing right elbow stiffened “pretty bad” when he woke up Wednesday morning.
“Not much range of motion,” he said. “Not where I want to be. Not what I expected coming into this season. I wanted to help this organization get back on track, but they’re doing a great job of it right now.”
An All-Star in 2009, Marquis joined the Nationals as a free agent in the offseason, signing a $15 million, two-year contract after going 15-13 with a 4.04 ERA for Colorado last season.
Mets GM Omar Minaya maintained throughout the offseason that the team’s pitchers were better than any who were available.
Marquis went 0-3 with a 20.52 ERA in three starts for Washington before going on the 15-day disabled list last month with inflammation in his elbow caused by bone chips.
“It’s disappointing, but it’s part of the game. It’s part of the grind that we go through,” he said. “Hopefully we caught it where there’s no further damage. … Clean up and be back to hopefully help down the stretch.”
Asked whether the Nationals could have saved time by going ahead with the operation weeks ago, Rizzo said: “It was an agreement between the team and the player. He felt he could pitch through it. It set us back about three weeks.”
The 31-year-old said he’s never had surgery on his arm.
“If that’s what has to be done to get me right and be Jason Marquis again, then I guess that’s something I have to do,” he said. “I’m surely not the first to have surgery and I’m definitely not going to be the last.”
Marquis threw 216 innings last season, surpassing 200 for the third time in his career, and made his first All-Star team thanks to a strong first half.
