Strasburg faces Tommy John surgery

WASHINGTON - Stephen Strasburg had to get through a few hours of anger, confusion, and certainly a few other emotions before he was ready to accept the sobering news expressed in three disheartening words.

Tommy John surgery.

The Washington Nationals rookie sensation is done for the season - and maybe next season as well - after the team announced Friday that he has a torn ligament in his right elbow.

He will travel Saturday to the West Coast for a second opinion, but the 22-year-old righthander has accepted the fact that he will need the ligament replacement operation that requires 12 to 18 months of rehabilitation.

"It's a new challenge," Strasburg said. "I want to be the best at everything, and right now I want to be the best at rehabbing and getting back out here."

It's a blow to Strasburg, of course, and to a baseball world that has spent the summer gasping in awe at his 100-m.p.h. fastball, bending curves, and wicked batter-freezing change-ups. But the biggest punch to the gut is to a franchise that had made the young phenom the centerpiece in its plans to climb out of perpetual last-place irrelevancy.

"There's no words that I can put in place here that would indicate we could possibly replace Stephen," manager Jim Riggleman said. "But we have to do it a different way, different names, different staff members who will go out there and fulfill the rotation until Stephen comes back."

Strasburg grimaced and then grabbed and shook his wrist after throwing a 1-1 change-up to the Phils' Domonic Brown at Citizens Bank Park last Saturday. It turned out to be his last pitch of the year. The Nationals initially called the injury a strained flexor tendon in the forearm, but an MRI exam taken Sunday raised enough questions for the Nationals to order a more extensive MRI exam.

Strasburg had the exam on Thursday and was informed of the diagnosis later that night, but the Nationals chose not to announce the news until Friday because it would have upstaged the introductory news conference for 2010 No. 1 draft pick Bryce Harper.

Strasburg could hardly believe the bad news, especially because his arm has felt fine all week, certainly good enough to keep pitching.

"I didn't take a matter of minutes" to sink in, he said. "I took definitely a few hours. I've got great support all around me, and they reminded me of everything I should be thankful for, and they put everything in perspective for me. Bottom line, this is a game. I'm very blessed to play this game for a living. It's a minor setback, but in the grand scheme of things it's just a blip on the radar screen."

Strasburg is an intense, competitive man. He wants the ball. He was disappointed when he had to start the season in the minors and wasn't exactly thrilled with the restrictions the Nationals have placed on him. Now he faces something he's never experienced in his baseball life: surgery on his arm, and the realistic prospect of not pitching again until 2012.

"It's a new challenge," he said. "It's going to be a learning experience. I feel like I'm going to be able to grow a lot as an individual and as a baseball player."

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft, Strasburg signed a record $15.1 million contract a year ago.