M’S Lose Johnson For Year Season-Ending Surgery Needed To Ease Pain From Bulging Disc

Randy Johnson, last season’s A.L. Cy Young Award winner and the best power pitcher in baseball, will undergo back surgery next month and be lost to the Seattle Mariners for the rest of the season.

The 6-foot-10 left-hander has been bothered by a bulging disc in his back for months. He was in Anaheim, Calif., on Monday for another examination by back specialist Dr. Robert Watkins.

Watkins recommended surgery. The team said rehabilitation was expected to take 8-10 weeks.

The news was a blow to the Mariners, who are fighting to reach the playoffs for the second year in a row.

“It’s a loss, it’s a big loss,” manager Lou Piniella said before Tuesday night’s game with the New York Yankees. “Now that the uncertainty of it is over, we can go on and go forward.”

At peak performance, Johnson has a 98 mph fastball. The Mariners ace, who will be 33 on Sept. 10, has been the major league strikeout king the past four seasons.

“Randy has an extruded disc herniation,” Watkins said in a statement released by the Mariners. “His back is stronger now than when I examined him on July 19, but the pain and discomfort still exists. If he were to continue to pitch, there is a risk of damaging the nerve or some other area from trying to compensate for the injury.”

Dr. Larry Pedegana, a Mariners’ team physician, said Tuesday night that an inch-long incision will be made in Johnson’s back and a little piece of the pitcher’s bulging disc will be removed. He compared the surgery to arthroscopic knee surgery.

“It certainly has been painful for Randy,” Pedegana said of Johnson’s recent performances. “Randy has had pain after every one of his pitching performances.”

Barry Meister, Johnson’s Chicago-based agent, said Tuesday night that Johnson kept pitching in pain this month despite Watkins’ advice to quit. Meister said Johnson had been bothered by sciatica - an irritation of the sciatic nerve resulting in pain running down the inside of the leg - as well as by the protruding disc.

“There’s been some speculation about whether Randy was hurt or not,” Meister said. “If anybody saw what Randy went through during the last year, they shouldn’t have any question about his desire. Physically, he pushed himself to the limit.”

Johnson was not at the Kingdome before Tuesday night’s game.

Johnson, who made 30 starts in compiling an 18-2 record with an AL-best 2.48 ERA last season, was 5-0 with a 3.67 ERA with 85 strikeouts in 61-1/3 innings and 14 games, including eight starts, this season.

He was on the 60-day disabled list from May 12 until Aug. 6, missing 73 games. Doctors initially thought rest would solve his back problems.

Johnson pitched nine scoreless innings in his first three relief outings, allowing six hits and striking out 15, but was ineffective in his last three outings.

In a Saturday loss at Boston, Johnson surrendered a grand slam to former teammate Darren Bragg, only the sixth home run Johnson had allowed to a left-handed hitter in his career and the first since 1992.

Johnson had refused Piniella’s requests to return to the starting rotation, saying he wasn’t yet ready to pitch that many innings.

Meister said Johnson considered Piniella “a friend,” but didn’t like fan and media criticism in Seattle that Johnson should have tried to start.

“He’s a little frustrated and hurt by that,” Meister said. “He did everything to get back on the field. It just turned out to be a physical impossibility. Now, it’s a question of damaging himself and ending his career.”

The Mariners expect Johnson back next season and Johnson expects to be back.

“Baseball has got its risks like everything else and injuries are always a factor,” Piniella said. “The important thing now is that the surgery is successful and he’ll have ample time to recover and get ready for next spring.”

Johnson is earning $5.75 million this season. He has one more year left on a contract that will pay him $6 million next season.

“Dr. Watkins told me and he told Barry that with a good rehabilitation Randy will be ready for spring training,” Seattle general manager Woody Woodward said.