WASHINGTON--Right-hander Garrett Mock, one of two pitchers the Nationals acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks in an Aug. 7 trade for veteran Livan Hernandez, had surgery to repair a tear in the patella tendon of his left knee yesterday and will need four to five months to rehabilitate the injury.
"From what the doctor tells me, the surgery went really smoothly, and it was something that needed to be done," Mock said. "It was something that aggravated me for a while."
The injury has lingered for much of Mock's professional career and dates to his final season at the University of Houston, when he broke his right ankle and altered his delivery to compensate.
The resulting knee problems have plagued him since Arizona drafted him in the third round of the 2004 First-Year Player Draft and the Nationals traded for the hard-throwing righty with full knowledge of his problematic right knee.
At 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, Mock's body and makeup have drawn comparisons to Roger Clemens, and like the future Hall of Fame fireballer, he relies on his legs and a huge amount of torque to reach 95 mph with his fastball.
"Obviously we knew about it," general manager Jim Bowden said. "I knew about it and [vice president for baseball operations] Mike Rizzo knew all about him when we traded for him."
Rizzo was the Diamondbacks' vice president of scouting, and drafted Mock before he was hired by the Nationals in July
"We want to take time to fix it now because we don't want him to get to the big leagues and be winning 12 games and have to have him hold up and do it then," Bowden added.
Ben Shaffer, the Nationals' team doctor, performed the surgery in Washington yesterday. Mock said he'll head to the Nats' complex in Viera, Fla., later this month to rehabilitate before finishing his rehab in Houston.
It's been a difficult year for Mock, who during the offseason was named the Diamondbacks' seventh-best prospect by Baseball America. However, he didn't blame this year's poor numbers solely on his knee problems.
Mock was 4-8 with a 4.95 ERA in 23 starts with Tennessee, Arizona's Double-A affiliate. In four starts since he was acquired from Arizona, he has allowed 29 hits, 19 earned runs and five walks in 16 innings for an 0-4 record and 10.80 ERA.
After his last start--a six-inning, four-run loss to Altoona on Sunday--the Nationals decided to shut him down and proceed with surgery.
"I'm not going to say that it's the reason," Mock said. "The numbers were bad because I made bad pitches. If the knee was OK, I don't think it would have caused me to make much better pitches."
Logan's chanceFor Nook Logan, a move to the National League might be exactly what he needs to jump-start his sputtering career.
"The type of game I play is well suited for the National League," said Logan, who started in center field in the second game of yesterday's doubleheader after he was acquired in a trade from the Detroit Tigers on Friday.
"I am just trying to take this opportunity and roll with it," he said. "Here I get to run around and see if I can do what I was doing over there and see if it'll work out."
Logan is considered a defensive and speed upgrade in center field, but questions linger about his bat. He hit .264 in parts of 2004 and 2005 with the Tigers, stealing 31 bases, but lost Detroit's starting job this summer and was beset by injuries in the minor leagues this season.
He is the 12th center fielder used by the Nationals the last two seasons.
To reach TODD JACOBSON:
Email: tjacobson@freelancestar.com