Rangers Harrison setback requires more surgery

ARLINGTON, Texas – Texas Rangers left-hander Matt Harrison, who was already on the disabled list after having back surgery, had a setback that required additional surgery Wednesday.

Harrison had surgery for a herniated disk April 23. The surgery was deemed a success at the time but Harrison had some pain in his leg Tuesday and had an MRI Wednesday which revealed another part of the same disk in his back (L5-S1) had herniated.

Harrison came through the surgery, which was performed again by Dr. Drew Dossett, without any issues.

He knew there was a chance additional surgery would be needed.

"Well it's definitely frustrating to have this happen again but it's better to have it happen a week out and not three months out," Harrison said. "They told me it was a 15 to 20 percent chance of happening again, so I guess I was one of those percentages."

Texas general manager Jon Daniels said the team hadn't put a timeline together for Harrison's return following the first surgery but the best guess for the recovery would be around three months.

"I'm still operating under that same type timeframe as of today," Daniels said. "I don't know how to quantify what that means as far as having it adjusted. I don't think it's that uncommon but obviously we would have preferred if he didn't have to have it cleaned up."

Harrison had started doing rehab but that didn't lead to the setback.

Harrison, who signed a five year, $55-million deal in the offseason, started the year 0-2 with an 8.44 ERA. He tried to pitch through what he thought was lower back soreness. He went on the disabled list April 11 and had two epidural injections to try and alleviate the pain.