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Professional Athletes

There have been numerous professional athletes that have returned from rotator cuff surgeries to be productive in their sports. Baseball pitchers are the athletes to most often have this injury due to the overhead throwing motion. Listed below, are a few baseball pitchers who have had rotator cuff surgery and come back to play again with various amounts of success.

(Pictures courtesy of http://www.starpulse.com)

(Statistics courtesy of http://www.baseball-reference.com)

Ramon Martinez:

Ramon Martinez debuted in 1990 for the Los Angeles Dodgers with a stellar season debut. As a 22-year-old Martinez had his first -- and best -- season: he posted a 20-6 record with a 2.92 ERA, 12 complete games, and 223 strikeouts, including an 18-strikeout game. Through the next few season Ramon pitched extremely well, accumulating ten or more wins for six of the next seven seasons.

In 1998, Ramon Martinez decided to have surgery to repair his torn rotator cuff injury, and was released by the Dodgers after the season, only to be picked up by the Boston Red Sox.

After extensive rehab, Ramon Martinez returned in September of the 1999 season for Boston. He went 2-1 in the remainder of that year, and then went 10-8 in 2000 for the Red Sox, contributing solid pitching performances throughout the season and in the playoffs. However, his arm still hurt slightly and his fastball speed, which had been in the mid to upper nineties earlier in his career, was down. He was released by the Boston Red Sox, and Ramon retired in 2001 after trying out for the Dodgers and the Pittsburg Pirates unsuccessfully.

Trevor Hoffman:

Trevor Hoffman has been one of the most dominating closers in baseball for the past decade. He is currently second among active pitchers with saves, behind John Franco, with 359 saves. He has accumulated over thirty saves for eight straight seasons, topping forty saves five times.

All of these huge save numbers came after a 1995 surgery that fixed his rotator cuff. He debuted in 1993 with the Marlins and was traded to the Padres midway through that year. Since then he has been with that one team. He underwent shoulder surgery again in 2003, to once again repair his rotator cuff.

After the 1995 surgery, Trevor was dominating. While he has not so fast a fastball, he relies on locations and changing speeds. His changeup is one of the best in his game, and recently voted one of the top ten out pitches in the game of baseball, ever. Thus far this year, Trevor has a 1.80 ERA and has already accumulated 7 saves (through May 1 st , 2004). He has his control and has been pitching very effectively.

Aaron Sele:

In the late 1990's Aaron Sele became a very well respected and talented pitcher. Between the years of 1998-2001, Sele won 15 or more games each year for Texas (1998-99) and Seattle (2000-01). Sele was part of Seattle's 116 win team of 2001, and was part of Anaheim's 2002 World Series Championship team. However, during this 2002 season, Sele began feeling pain in his shoulder.

After going 8-9 in 2002, Sele decided to end his season early in September and have rotator cuff surgery to fix the tear in his shoulder. Sele went through rehab during the off-season and returned to the Anaheim Angels for the 2003 season.

In 2003, Sele went 7-11 with a 5+ ERA. While providing veteran leadership, Sele claimed that his arm was still somewhat sore. So far this season (as of May 1 st 2004), Sele has pitched in six games, and started only one. His ERA is under four, and the one start was five innings of shutout ball. Manager Mike Sciossia has said that he has been very pleased with Sele's work this far this year.

Bret Saberhagen:

Bret Saberhagen debuted with the Kansas City Royals in 1984, and by 1985 he had already won the Cy Young Award and led the Royals to a World Series Championship while winning Series MVP honors. Over the next few seasons, he continued to be the team's ace. In 1989, he once again won the Cy Young Award while leading the majors with 23 wins. Over the next few years, his shoulder gave him some trouble while pitching for the New York Mets and Colorado Rockies.

In 1996, he decided to have Rotator Cuff Surgery to repair his injured right shoulder. He rehabbed into the 1997 season, where he was signed by the Red Sox.

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Created by: Blair Smith, Connie Wu, Daniel Solomon, Matthew Whitson, and Stephanie Chang
Date last modified: 5/2/2004