Over the weekend it was reported Chicago Cubs starter Jon Lester is pitching with a bone chip in his throwing elbow and the left-hander acknowledged the issue, but he and manager Joe Maddon publicly downplayed its significance.
Yes, nowadays there's really no guarantee for a pitcher's arm health to remain secure due to the amount of stress placed on the small ligament that keeps the elbow intact. But should the Cubs be worried about their $155 million investment going down at some point in 2016?
The bone chip, as described by Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan in his upcoming book "The Arm," is "a little grenade floated near his ligament, and at some point it would warrant surgery," Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote. That information was based on a 2014 MRI of Lester's elbow. Passan's book is set to be published in the beginning of April.
Lester made a good point and said he probably wouldn't have signed that big of a contract last offseason if the bone chip was a "serious issue." The Cubs reportedly had full knowledge of the chip. Additionally, the veteran has never been on the disabled list with an elbow issue, he's made at least 31 starts in each season since 2008 and he's thrown at least 200 innings in seven of those eight seasons.
MLB has seen tons of pitchers in the past undergo arthroscopic surgery to remove bone chips in the elbow, which isn't awfully invasive and the recovery time (typically 6-12 weeks) isn't as long as reconstructive Tommy John elbow surgery (12-14 months).
However, there's no need for Lester to go under the knife because he's not experiencing severe symptoms of the bone chip. When a bone chip is seriously affecting the elbow, there is frequent pain in the area and moving it could cause it to lock in place. Additionally, sometimes the area becomes swollen and the arm cannot be straighten completely.
There are ways to treat it without surgery, as Lester is likely doing since he said such issues require proper management. Icing the area, using anti-inflammatory creams and proper rest are three crucial ways to keep the swelling down and relieve pain, but as far as we know, Lester has not yet dealt with swelling in the area, so it's clearly not a pressing issue.
Should the Cubs be worried? If I was an executive, I wouldn't be because it's just a senseless way to live, but I would certainly keep it in the back of my mind and have a backup plan ready in case things take a turn for the worse. Plus, Chicago has other things to worry about, such as monitoring Jake Arrieta's workload in 2016 and figuring out who will be anchoring the starting rotation.
The Cubs knew about the bone chip before committing big dollars to the left-hander, so it's doubtful Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer are stressing over it.
