Carlos Gonzalez will join teammate Troy Tulowitzki on the sidelines for the remainder of the year, as the Rockies announced that the outfielder will undergo season-ending left knee surgery Monday.
Cody Ulm of MLB.com reports that the recovery timetable for Gonzalez is expected to be 5-6 months, which would only leave him about a month or so of leeway before the beginning of spring training.
Gonzalez has had knee problems dating back to last season and the 28-year-old has played just 70 games this year while hitting a career-worst .238 with a .723 OPS after topping an .875 OPS every season from 2009-2013.
“It was hard for me to sit back and have a leg kick,” Gonzalez told Ulm. “It was even harder to hold all my weight on my back knee.”
Gonzalez played 145 games in 2010 while winning the batting title and finishing third in the MVP balloting, but since then he’ll have played 442 of a possible 648 games for the Rockies while missing at least 27 games each year.