When Mike Sirotka flew to Chicago in early January to have White Sox doctors examine his shoulder he received a shot of cortisone and was told not to throw for 10 days.
Sirotka was supposed to call the Sox a few weeks later to report how the shoulder felt, but he never got that chance.
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“The next thing I knew, I was traded,” Sirotka said.
The White Sox-turned-Blue Jay learned last week that he has a torn labrum and a tear in the rotator cuff, injuries that threaten to sideline him in 2001 and even could lead to a return to the Sox.
Sirotka is scheduled for an examination by surgeon James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday. If the prognosis is as dire as expected, Toronto General Manager Gord Ash is likely to file a letter to the commissioner’s office asking for compensation from the Sox.
Whether Ash will ask for David Wells, Kip Wells, Jon Rauch or Jon Garland isn’t known, but the Sox aren’t interested in letting any of the four get away.
Sirotka, who was in town to receive an award from the March of Dimes on Monday, was in a state of limbo, both physically and mentally. He said he’s happy being a Blue Jay, but was also happy with the Sox.
“I don’t know what will happen,” Sirotka said. “It’s kind of crazy. My first thought is that I was hurt when they traded me. I don’t know if you can blame both sides for either not being truthful or not knowing how serious it was. But the bottom line is, I was hurt before the trade. It happened in between the end of the season and [an All-Star exhibition series in] Japan.”
White Sox General Manager Ken Williams has said the Sox will not compensate the Blue Jays because of Sirotka’s injury and he doesn’t believe Sirotka is necessarily out for the season.
“I’m optimistic that it’s the same thing he has experienced in the past . . . that they’ll put him on a slower program this spring and he’ll be able to pitch, Williams said. “He’s not experiencing anything vastly different than he did the last couple of years.”
Williams’ hardline stance suggests the ball soon will be in the hands of Commissioner Bud Selig. With spring training beginning this week, both sides would like a quick resolution to the issue so it won’t be a distraction in camp.
While Williams and Ash both are looking out for their team’s best interest–and hoping the story won’t damage their reputations–Sirotka is caught squarely in the middle. He didn’t want to leave the Sox in the first place, and he said he was surprised they traded him without knowing the full extent of his injury.
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“I told the Sox [about the shoulder pain] in early January and I went up to see the doctors,” he said. “They examined me very quickly and gave me a cortisone shot. I was traded about 10 days later. It’s unusual to have a cortisone shot without even being in season, but they were not concerned about it.”
If that’s true, the implication is the Sox may have wanted Sirotka to appear healthier than he really was so he could pass a physical immediately after a trade.
Sirotka said Sox doctors declined to take a magnetic resonance imaging test. His first MRI, given by a Toronto team doctor, found minor shoulder damage. A second one, conducted by another team doctor, discovered the tears in the shoulder.
If Sirotka is sent back to the Sox, chances are the Blue Jays would be interested in getting Jim Parque instead. It would be a strange twist in this bizarre saga if Parque was sent in Sirotka’s place, considering they are close friends.