(Click to make bigger and to be able to read the labels.) Mark Kotsay's back is not in good shape. He first went on the DL with a strained back in May of 2003 and missed sixteen games. He missed sixteen games of the 2005 season with back problems. He missed nineteen games in 2006 with back spasms. He started 2007 on the DL after having surgery on a herniated disc. He came back in June of that year but only lasted until mid-August when the pain came back and caused him to miss the rest of the season. He landed on the fifteen-day DL in May of last year and missed thirty-three games. So the news that his back has once again proved problematic shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
Back on January 29, Kotsay had endoscopic surgery to remove a displaced disc fragment from his back. When a disc herniates besides the nucleus pulposus leaking into the foramen and aggravating the spinal cord; bits of cartilage, apophyseal bone, and anulus can also enter and float around in the spinal cord's space. It's likely that one of these bits of anatomical litter was removed from his back.
His surgeon performs Micro-Endoscopic Discectomy (neat little animation of the procedure here by clicking on micro endoscopic disectomy.) A tiny slit in his back, make the hole slightly bigger by pushing the muscle to the side, insert a light and a tool, grab the errant fragments, and close him up.
Because the muscle isn't cut, the recovery from the procedure shouldn't be too bad. It can actually be performed under local anaesthesia, as an outpatient procedure. The idea that he might be ready to go by some time in April isn't too out there of an idea.
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