CHICAGO — In late June, Jacoby Ellsbury stood outside the Yankees’ minor-league complex in Tampa and said the plan was for him to rejoin the Yankees from the disabled list at some point in the regular season.
A month later, the center fielder stood in the exact spot and didn’t give in to the calendar ticking away while he was limited to weight-room activities and didn’t have a date when he could start swinging a bat, running and throwing a ball.
Ellsbury was diagnosed with an oblique problem in spring training. Next was planta fasciitis. Later it was a hip situation. Then a sacroiliac situation which involved the sacrum and the hip.
Tuesday, the Yankees announced the 34-year-old Ellsbury underwent arthroscopic surgery on Monday to repair a torn labrum in the left hip, and that erased all chances of Ellsbury playing a game during the 2018 season and likely puts him behind others when spring training opens in 2019.
Dr. Bryan Kelly, the doctor who performed labrum surgery on Alex Rodriguez, handled the surgery, which the Yankees said went as expected.
“He was examined by Dr. Kelly at the end of spring training and he had an MRI of the hips, which Dr. Kelly determined was causing the issues,’’ GM Brian Cashman said Tuesday.
Ellsbury rehabbed the hips and later the lower back. However, when those programs didn’t allow him to progress, it was time for to take a deeper look.
“Dr. Kelly re-examined him and after all the rehab options were exhausted there was a labrum tear much bigger than the MRI showed,’’ Cashman said. “It was the right option.’’
Manager Aaron Boone agreed with his boss.
“Exhausting the options was the right way to go,’’ Boone said before the Yankees faced the White Sox on Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Even before the Yankees acquired Giancarlo Stanton from the Marlins in December, there wasn’t a spot for Ellsbury in the lineup. Brett Gardner was going to play left field, Aaron Hicks center and Aaron Judge was in right field. The addition of Stanton only made it more crowded and took away DH at-bats if Ellsbury was healthy.
Cashman said at the winter meetings in December that Ellsbury would compete for the center field job, but that never happened because of the oblique problem that kept him out of exhibition games after March 1.
And while the Yankees said the typical time frame to resume full competition following the surgery is approximately six months, Ellsbury will likely find the same crowded outfield next spring. Even more so if Clint Frazier is healthy.
Since signing a seven-year contract worth $153 million to add speed and ability to get on base to the top of the Yankees’ lineup, Ellsbury hasn’t been the player the Yankees thought they were getting after a strong 2013 season for the Red Sox. He batted .298 with an AL-leading 52 steals (134 games) and a .355 on-base percentage in his final year with the Red Sox.
In four years with the Yankees Ellsbury is a .254 career hitter with 102 stolen bases in 520 games and has an OPS of .330.
His best year in pinstripes might have been a concussion-abbreviated 2017, when he batted .264 with a .348 on-base percentage in 112 games. He was on the seven-day concussion list from May 25 to June 26.
When suffering the concussion running into the center field wall against the Royals, Ellsbury was batting .281 with a .349 on-base percentage. In 73 games (58 starts) when off the DL, Ellsbury batted .253 with a .348 on-base percentage.
Ellsbury appeared in six of the Yankees’ 2017 postseason games (three starts) and went hitless in nine at-bats.
