OAKLAND, Calif. — The injury-plagued Texas Rangers continued making news off the field Tuesday for the wrong reasons.
Before their series-opening 6-3 victory against Oakland, the Rangers announced that outfielder Michael Choice’s season is over because of a severely strained left hamstring, and that outfielder Shin-Soo Choo will undergo surgery Wednesday on his left ankle to repair torn cartilage.
Choice, who was injured Sunday against Atlanta while running out a double, will need six-to-eight weeks to recover, and the Rangers have nixed plans for him to play Winter League baseball, general manager Jon Daniels said. Choice will not need surgery.
Choice hit just .182 with nine home runs and 36 RBIs in 253 at-bats this season, his first with the Rangers. He was traded to Texas by Oakland on Dec. 3, 2013, as part of a deal for outfielder Craig Gentry.
Rangers interim manager Tim Bogar called this season a “learning experience” for Choice and said he still believes the young outfielder can develop into a solid big league player.
“Just because he’s had a bump in the road doesn’t mean you give up on him,” Bogar said. “He’s got a lot of talent.”
Choo’s season ended Aug. 29 when he underwent surgery to remove bone spurs from his left elbow. He initially injured his ankle in June but continued playing, opting against surgery.
“I think after the last round of consultation (with doctors) he decided he wanted to get it cleaned up,” Daniels said. “From a timing standpoint, it’s a six-to-eight weeks to kind of full-go, which kind of butts up against that mid-November time frame when that … normal offseason program would begin for him. From that standpoint I think we’re OK as far as 2015. If we were going to do it, I would have preferred ideally that he would have had it done two months ago.”