Manny Corpas to undergo Tommy John surgery next week

As expected, Rockies reliever Manny Corpas needs Tommy John elbow surgery and will go under the knife next week, knocking him out for the rest of this season and likely all of 2011 as well. Corpas was the closer on a World Series team as a rookie in 2007, but lost that job to Brian Fuentes in 2008 and then couldn’t beat out Huston Street to reclaim ninth-inning duties last season. He missed the final two months of last year following surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow and came back to pitch pretty well in a setup role this season with a 4.28 ERA and 47/21 K/BB ratio in 61 innings before an ugly final outing last Wednesday. Corpas signed a four-year, $8 million deal in the winter between his breakout rookie season and disappointing sophomore campaign, so the Rockies will pay him $3.5 million to rehab the injury next year and then will have to cough up $750,000 in buyouts rather then exercising $14 million worth of options for 2012 and 2013.