San Francisco Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro underwent back surgery that could end his career.
Giants general manager Brian Sabean announced during a conference call Monday that Scutaro had the fusion procedure performed by Dr. Michael Wang in Miami on Friday to alleviate the troublesome area at level L-2/L-3 of his spine. It will be four-to-six months before doctors determine whether Scutaro can play baseball again.
The 39-year-old Scutaro, a journeyman infielder who became the surprising 2012 NL Championship Series MVP, played in only five games last season — all in July — because of recurring back problems that landed him on the disabled list for good July 25. He is now resting at home and will soon begin the long rehabilitation program post-surgery.
Scutaro has known he might need the operation in order to give him a quality of life even just in his day-to-day schedule off the baseball field.
"This is the type of thing, it’s four-to-six months before we can know if baseball is possible," Sabean said. "I don’t want to speak for the doctor or the procedure but you’d have to how he responds to the surgery and that’s months away."
In parts of 13 major league seasons with the Giants, Oakland, New York Mets, Boston, Toronto and Colorado, Scutaro is a career .277 hitter with 77 home runs and 509 RBIs with 269 doubles and 21 triples.
Scutaro put up remarkable numbers in 2012 after joining the Giants from the Colorado Rockies on July 27. He batted .362 with three homers and 44 RBIs in 61 regular-season games with the Giants.
In a seven-game 2012 NLCS against St. Louis, Scutaro had six multihit games and matched an LCS record with 14 hits.
He batted .500 (14 for 28) with four RBIs in the NLCS, playing in his second post-season and first since 2006 with Oakland. He became the first player in major league history with six multihit games in an LCS.
Scutaro was rewarded with a $20 million, three-year contract in December 2012.
