DETROIT — Initially, Luke Putkonen was elated when he heard the words “no surgery” from noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews, the same guy who performed his first Tommy John surgery before his freshman year at North Carolina.

It meant he would not need another Tommy John surgery.

But he still ended up going on Andrews’ operating table three weeks later, having arthroscopic surgery Thursday in Pensacola, Fla., to remove a bone spur (posterior osteophyte) from his right elbow.

“Hopefully that’ll take care of his issues,” said Detroit Tigers head trainer Kevin Rand, who said that Andrews smoothed the area out. “It’s a bony growth. It’s not a bone chip.”

Putkonent will be re-examined after six-to-eight weeks of rest and rehabilitation, but there is no timetable set for his return to the Tigers.

He was placed on the 15-day disabled list on April 19 with inflammation in his throwing elbow. The training staff thought they’d gotten the inflammation cleared up, and had him make three rehabilitation appearances in the minors in early May, before it flared back up again. The team sought and received a second opinion from Andrews late last month.

“We knew he had the osteophytes when we did the MRI. Those are common. You can have a lot of guys that’ll have those type of bony type changes in their elbow from pitching,” Rand said. “The question is, are you going to be able to get that quiet where you can go through and have no issues with it, and obviously he wasn’t able to.”

Getting an appointment with noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews is like getting called to the principal’s office.

You might be in trouble.

Turns out Luke Putkonen’s trip to Florida to see Andrews for a second opinion this week was not as indicative of trouble as it could have been.

There’s no discussion of surgery just yet for Putkonen’s sore throwing elbow, as Andrews confirmed the previous diagnosis, and recommended continued rehabilitation.

“Yes. No talk of surgery right now. Treatment and rehabilitation,” manager Brad Ausmus said. “Andrews looked at him, looked at the MRI, and kind of made the same diagnosis that was made before. So just going to continue treatment and rehab, see if they can work it out.”

Putkonen has been on the disabled list since April 19 with inflammation in his right (throwing) elbow. He made three rehabilitation appearances — one at Class A West Michigan and two at Triple-A Toledo — before being shelved again soon after his last outing on May 13, when he gave up four runs on four hits.

A quick update on some of the Tigers’ injuries:

• Andy Dirks has moved out of the rehabilitation phase of his recovery from back surgery in early March. Dirks had microdiscectomy surgery on March 10, and was expected to need 12 weeks of recovery, starting with three weeks of complete rest, and three weeks of therapy.

He’s closer to nine weeks out, now.

“He threw the other day for the first time, and he can take dry swings. Just swing a bat easy. That’s where he’s at. I guess the very beginnings of baseball activities,” said Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, who had the same surgery in 2010.

“We’re coming up on two months, really. It’s kind of a three-month injury. I think it was three months. Whenever the exact date of the surgery was, roughly three months from there. Everyone’s a little different.”

A twelve-week estimate would put land Dirks’ target return date in the first week of June.


• Anibal Sanchez felt fine after Friday’s bullpen session.

“Sanchie is going to throw a simulated (game) in Baltimore on Tuesday,” Ausmus said.

On the DL since April 27, Sanchez said Friday night he expects to return to the rotation on May 18, against Boston.


• Luke Putkonen threw two innings in his second rehabilitation outing Friday night, giving up a run on two hits. He will make another appearance in Toledo on Tuesday, according to Ausmus, and should be good to go after that.

“Should be, yeah. If it continues as it is right now,” Ausmus said.

Putkonen has been on the disabled list since April 19 with inflammation in his throwing elbow.