Back in April the Red Sox signed 22-year-old Cuban catcher Adalberto Ibarra for $4.3 million, but that bonus was lessened to $800,000 after he failed a physical exam due to a shoulder injury.
And now it turns out he needed shoulder surgery.
Alex Speier of WEEI.com reports that Ibarra underwent surgery yesterday to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder and will be out of action for at least 4-5 months.
Red Sox farm director Mike Hazen told Speier that Ibarra initially tried to rehab the injury, but “wasn’t able to get over the hump throwing-wise” and the team decided he was better off going under the knife now rather than risk missing all of 2011.
Ibarra hit just .228 with zero homers in 19 games between rookie-ball and Single-A in his pro debut, but he did post a .382 on-base percentage thanks to 14 walks and obviously it’s tough to judge his performance too harshly given what he now know about his shoulder. Assuming he’s healthy in April or May, he figures to spend most of next season at Single-A.