Oct. 04--White Sox center fielder Adam Eaton will have minor surgery on his left shoulder Monday after playing through pain for the second half of the season.
Eaton said the surgery, which he called "scheduled maintenance," will involve nerve decompression. He said he thinks it should be an easy recovery and hopes to begin some offseason fishing in a few weeks.
"It has been kind of a hassle most of the season with throwing and diving," Eaton said. "I'm excited to sleep better and be able to put my hand above my shoulder in the future. It's not a big deal, they were saying."
Eaton jammed his shoulder in July while trying to make a diving catch, but while it has been bothersome, it hasn't much affected his production. He has hit .335 with a .418 on-base percentage, eight home runs, 38 RBIs and 52 runs scored since the All-Star break.
Sox manager Robin Ventura said they want to get the issue taken care of so Eaton feels better by spring training.
"We knew it was there, and now we're just going to go in and clean it up so he can feel 100 percent when he gets to spring training," Ventura said. "But he does play well when he has something wrong, so that's a good sign. He has battled through it, and I think he's had a good effort as far as playing through it."
Eaton, however, wasn't in the lineup for the season finale Sunday, preventing him from trying to reach the 100 runs scored mark. No Sox player has reached the mark since Jermaine Dye and Jim Thome did so in 2006. Eaton entered Sunday with 98 runs.
"It must not mean anything to Robin," Eaton said when asked if the mark meant anything to him. "No, it definitely does. I had all intentions that I was playing today, but there's a good left-hander (Daniel Norris) on the mound today and I think they want some righties in there. But you know, always a goal for next year."
Eaton isn't the only Sox player to head into surgery this week. Sox catcher Tyler Flowers will have right knee surgery to remove a piece of floating cartilage, an injury that has bothered him most of the season.
"It stinks that it was a lot of the season, but I feel that I was able to fight through it," Flowers said. "I feel like that's the expectation when you're an athlete. You deal with pain. You decipher the difference between the two. I felt like I was still able to contribute. Maybe it hurt my speed a little bit, but that's not a big part of my game."
