According to Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Phillies announced that Jimmy Rollins underwent minor surgery Thursday to have a ganglion cyst removed from his left wrist.
Rollins will have stitches removed within the next two weeks and David Murphy (not the baseball player) of the Philadelphia Daily News reports that he should be fine for spring training.
Rollins, who turned 32 in November, was limited to just 88 games this past season due to a right calf injury and batted just .243/.320/.374 with eight home runs, 41 RBI, 17 stolen bases and a 694 OPS over 394 plate appearances.
The Phillies already exercised his $8.5 million option for 2011 last December, so while it can be argued that they may have jumped the gun a bit, there’s no doubt that they would have brought him back even after an injury-plagued 2010 season. Still, it’s worth nothing that he has a modest 710 OPS over the past two seasons compared to an 811 OPS during his monster seasons from 2004-08. He’ll enter his contract year with some extra motivation, but we’re likely witnessing his decline right now.