February 26, 2001

By now, the 22-year-old power pitcher is at peace with the fact that his frayed rotator cuff needed surgery, even though there is a small part of him that wishes Dr. James Andrews had done the surgery last August, when he examined Meche, instead of now.
“It seemed like the doctor felt like he wanted to go in, because he knew it was going to be the only way to get an answer. But he said they (the Mariners) want to hold things off because surgery should be the last resort,” Meche said.

“But sure, in the back of my mind, I wish we had done it then. But we had all the tests and nothing came up. The plan was to rest and rehab. But I didn’t have a very good feeling coming into spring training. I was here in January and my fastball still didn’t have its usual zip. One day after throwing a little, I just looked at (pitching coach) Bryan (Price) and we both knew. We said, ‘Let’s just shut it down,’” Meche said.

the other papers had this at the time:

The Seattle Times, February 16, 2001

For a man who had a gifted arm operated on only days ago, Meche was looking very pleased. “I know this sounds crazy, but I wanted them to find something wrong,” he said of the procedure performed by Dr. James Andrews of Birmingham, Ala. “I was hoping they wouldn’t go inside and find everything fine with me.”

Last year, numerous doctors, including Dr. Andrews, found nothing wrong with Meche. At least, nothing wrong enough to cause the arm troubles that Meche felt from training camp on.

“From even before camp, getting ready for camp,” he said, “it didn’t feel like it had in previous years. It didn’t feel right. In camp, I thought it was because I hadn’t gotten ready quick enough for spring training.”

Even limited, Meche’s abilities got him in Piniella’s starting rotation to open the season. But even though the youngster did well at times, including seven shutout innings against a tough Anaheim Angel lineup in May, Meche was starting to worry.

“I wasn’t feeling any pain, just a sort of pressure in the arm, and in games I didn’t feel anything, like the arm was numb,” the pitcher said. “My arm felt powerless, like I was pitching with a 2-pound baseball.”

Meche was placed on the disabled list in late May, and again in June. When the club feared circulation problems in his arm, Meche was examined by a vascular specialist.

Nothing helped, so they tried to rest him. That worked no better, so Meche did not pitch the rest of the season and spent the offseason working to rebuild strength in his arm.

“When he got to camp in January, it was a lot like last year when his velocity was going from 93-95 (mph) to 87-88 in a couple of innings,” said pitching coach Bryan Price. “He’d start off fine, then peter off.”

Added Meche: “Last year was so frustrating, then it was starting all over. It scared me. I want to help my team. I want to be healthy.”

Meche talked with Price, who told him if he needed to get something done, he should. “The idea was to do it as soon as possible, to get well as soon as possible,” Price said.

Andrews decided to perform an arthroscopic examination and found that the pitcher had some fraying of his rotator cuff, a condition that is common for pitchers. In Meche’s case, it was crippling.

After what was described as minor surgery, the right-hander is happy to say that Andrews told him he’d “be game-ready after the (All-Star) break.”

PI, February 22, 2001

The 22-year-old Meche underwent an examination at the hands of orthopedic guru Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., on Feb. 6 in an effort to determine the cause of his shoulder tightness. Andrews found some fraying of the right rotator cuff and repaired it on the spot. “If it was the whole shoulder, that would be six months,” Meche said. “But he only had to work on one capsule. So now they are thinking four months.”

I don’t have the cite at hand, but Meche made comments later that that first surgery was intended to fix the problem and was not, as Finnigan quotes Meche there, just a look-see followed by physical therapy.

That is consistent with my recollection. The first surgery was intended to fix; the second was cleanup from the first one.

I don’t think they would have snnt Meche to Andrews for just a “look-see” procedure.

To correct a mis-typing in one of my previous posts. Injuries in the interior of the labrum are more significant than injuries on the margins.

“Meche seemed on the rise in June 2000. He recovered from a slow start with the Mariners to go 3-0 with a 1.61 earned-run average that month, including a rain-shortened 7-0 win on June 13 in Kansas City when he allowed only one hit in five innings.

Six weeks later, he was on the disabled list. And when the Mariners shut him down, Meche could only describe his problem as a weak feeling in the shoulder. A series of MRIs revealed nothing, and the first surgery, by Dr. James Andrews, revealed no more than fraying of the labrum, pretty standard for a pitcher.

“So they left it alone,” Meche recalled, “and I came down to Arizona and started rehab. I’d long-toss and still feel something.”

He continued with his program until he returned to Seattle in September. And one day in the bullpen, as he struggled to throw through the pain, he and pitching coach Bryan Price knew it was useless.

For a second time, Meche shut down, and concern was growing in the organization that he was exaggerating his problem or he was too sensitive or he wasn’t tough enough.

“I knew I was feeling this impingement in the front of my shoulder, and I don’t know if anyone else believed me or not,” Meche said. “I mean, from my viewpoint, why would someone like me want to have a problem with his arm? I knew I had something wrong.

“I knew some people were thinking I was a mental mess, but I couldn’t help that. I had a problem in my arm, whether they found something or not, whether people believed me or not. It was frustrating.”

Finally, Dr. Larry Pedegana, the Mariners’ orthopedic specialist, operated. According to Meche, he loosened up the impingement by shaving the acromion and bursa.

“It worked,” Meche said. “It must have been what was wrong all along.”

and FWIW, re: the organization’s uncertainties, from May 13, 2003:

“I know there were times when there was a question over the legitimacy of his injury. That certainly wasn’t an overall organizational feeling, but some questions were unanswered,” Price said. “But I didn’t feel he was the type of kid who would just make it up. Maybe he just didn’t know what it was like to have a bit of soreness. We ran all the tests and couldn’t find anything wrong. But at that time there was a question of how significant it was. As it turned out, it was significant.”

Will and I have had some corespondence on that topic. In my contacts with Will he has recognized that at the least there is a difference in severity.

I have a close personal friend who is an occupational medicine physician for a compnay that does major assembly operations. He deals routinely with arm and shoulder injuries that occur among the workforce, including tears, dislocations, etc.

He considers fraying as distinctly different from a tear. Fraying ofren occurr sournd the edges of the labrum, whereas a tear usually occurs near the middle of the labrum. Injuries in the interior of the labrum are more significant than injuries in the interior.

Fraying in the interior is generally considered a precursor to a tear. But if the injury has not proceeded to the point where fluid leaks out of the labrum, the condition is much less eevere – and is more treatable.

The Mariner team physicians very clearly distinguished Meche’s injury as fraying and not a tear.