Tanner Scheppers lasted one workout in Arizona before things went south for the oft-injured reliever.
The Rangers announced on Saturday that he tore cartilage in his knee and will undergo surgery to repair it this week. He's expected to miss the first half of the season.
"He worked his butt off to come back," Rangers general manager Jon Daniels told the Dallas Morning News. "[Team medical director] Jamie Reed was his throwing partner for a lot of the winter and said his arm has had as much life as its had in a while."
It's the latest in a string of unfortunate events for Scheppers, who emerged in 2013 as one of the league's elite setup men when he posted a 1.88 ERA in 76 2/3 innings pitched. That season, he also missed a bit of time when he had an incident on a road trip to Cleveland in which he said he was mugged and attacked.
In 2014, Scheppers made the transition to the starting rotation and failed miserably before ending his year with elbow inflammation. Last year, he suffered a knee injury in the spring and got off to a poor start in the Rangers' bullpen before being demoted to the bullpen.
Now, there's this.
Scheppers showed so much promise back in 2013 but has been a disaster since then, and you hope he can fix this problem and rediscover his dominance as a reliever once again.
