On October 18, Kansas City Royals' prospect, Kyle Zimmer, felt some discomfort is his elbow while pitching. He couldn't really move his shoulder as well as he should have. This discomfort was very unusual to him. He had complained about tightness in his shoulder. This was very concerning. In 2014, Zimmer was sidelined with an injury to the latissimus dorsi, a muscle in the back of the shoulder.
Feeling this pain the Kansas City Royals were hoping that it wasn't the same injury. He experienced an issue while pitching in the Arizona Fall League. The pain and inability to move was back. The Kansas City Royals doctors performed various tests hoping to find a cause. They didn't find an answer so they looked for a second opinion. New York Mets doctor David Altcheck was going to give Zimmer a second opinion on what was causing the issue. After the test results came back, the answer was that he had a debridement of the rotator cuff and labrum. A debridement is a medical procedure in which tissue is removed in order to protect the healthy tissue. This morning the procedure occurred.
Kyle Zimmer has had a history of health related problems. Doctors aren't quite sure why the case may be. One reason is that he's a converted starter. Doctors believe that his body isn't used to the work load that the starter has. This is his third serious injury and his second elbow surgery. In 2012, Kyle Zimmer had an elbow operation. In 2013, he had a problem with the biceps and was forced to be shut down.