The Texas Rangers aren't getting Colby Lewis back in their rotation this season. His comeback from right elbow surgery has been thwarted by a troublesome hip.
Lewis said Tuesday that he will have surgery to remove bone spurs from his hip that has bothered him for a couple of years.
Lewis, the team's most successful postseason pitcher, said the repaired elbow has felt good. But the pain in his hip was getting to the point that it affected his pitching.
"My consistency to repeat my delivery is not there, and I think it just has basically put myself in a situation where I haven't give my arm a chance to get right either," Lewis said. "My arm, it feels great at times. Then, if my mechanics aren't perfect because of my hip, it gets sore at certain times."
The surgery will be done as early as the end of this week. Recovery time is six to eight weeks.
General manager Jon Daniels said Lewis' recovery from the surgery in July 2012 to repair a torn right flexor tendon "was going very well." Lewis was pitching in rehab games in the minor leagues and had been expected to rejoin the Rangers rotation by maybe the end of this month..
"He's dealt with hip issues over the years. The guy has an unbelievable pain tolerance and work ethic. He's pushed through it as far as he could," Daniels said. "It's just got to the point where he felt, and we felt, our medical staff felt like he was probably putting his arm at risk by pushing through it further."
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Lewis, who turned 34 last month, was 6-6 with a 3.43 ERA in 16 starts last season before his elbow surgery. Two months after that, the Rangers gave him a $2 million, one-year extension for 2013.
Originally drafted by the Rangers in 1999 with a compensation pick between the first and second rounds, Lewis is 32-29 with a 3.93 ERA in 80 starts since rejoining the team in 2010 after two seasons in Japan. He is 4-1 with a 2.34 ERA in eight postseason starts -- 1-0 with a 2.29 ERA in three World Series games.
Daniels said the Rangers would "absolutely" like to have Lewis back. Lewis said he'd love to stay in Texas, and that he feels the surgery will help him reach his goal to pitch in the majors again.
"It's something that I just dealt with it. ... Try to deal with it and try to mask the pain as much as I can and as long as I can," Lewis said. "I feel like by doing this it's going to allow me to give myself one more opportunity to come back and make a last run at things. ... I just feel like I need to get this done and move on and try to be the guy I know I once was."
