UPDATE: Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Garcia will indeed undergo thoracic outlet surgery. He’s done for the year.
1:25 p.m. ET: Jaime Garcia landed on the disabled list late last month with more shoulder issues and now Brian Stull of STLBaseballWeekly.com reports that he is facing a decision on whether to undergo thoracic outlet surgery.
Garcia, 27, was limited to just nine starts with the Cardinals last season due to surgery to repair a 30-40 percent tear in his labrum. He managed to return this May and posted a 4.12 ERA over seven starts prior to being placed on the disabled list with what was termed as a left shoulder inflammation. Thoracic outlet surgery, which usually involves having a rib removed to alleviate a nerve issue, would essentially end his season.
Garcia is owed $9.25 million next season while his contract includes club options for 2016 and 2017. With a 3.50 ERA over nearly 600 innings in the majors, he has been effective when healthy, but those days have been few and far between recently.