Cano to have sports hernia surgery after season

Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano will undergo surgery to fix a sports hernia after the season, he announced Friday.

Cano, who turns 33 on October 22, suffered the injury on July 22, but has been able to play through it (and play well) during the second half of the regular season.

Cano and the Mariners’ team orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Edward Khalfayan, met with the media to discuss the injury.

“I mean, I love to play baseball and I’ve been playing like that for the last two months so why would you sit down for the next three days and just watch a game?”

On September 23 at Kansas City, he got his 2,000th hit, the 14th player in history – and first second baseman – to reach that milestone in his first 11 seasons. 331 since July 1 with 50 runs scored, 15 doubles, 16 home runs and 52 RBIs.

Cano will have the surgery (the first of his career) done by Dr. William Meyers and will then go through a six-week rehab period. So his timetable will not depart much from his usual offseason routine. Cano usually takes off the first four to six weeks after the season before returning to baseball activity.

While Cano would have preferred to avoid surgery altogether, he said he takes satisfaction in knowing he’ll show up to Spring Training next year with a clean bill of health. Im going to start at the same time. I just got to be careful. Im not supposed to lift anything heavy.

Cano, who is about to come off the second year of his $240 million contract with the Mariners, is batting. But both were in the lineup for Friday’s game and will continue to play through the weekend. He is based at the Vincera Institute in Philadelphia.Cano saw no reason to skip the seasons final three games.“Ive been playing like this for the last two months, ” he said.

“It only hurts when I sprint or make quick movements”, he said. “I love to be out there”.