Cobb to undergo season-ending hip surgery; retirement 'a big possibility'

DETROIT -- Alex Cobb walked off the mound after his last rehab outing Monday for Triple-A Toledo knowing he was done. He had tossed a scoreless inning despite three walks, a single and a stolen base, and he was supposed to pitch another inning, but he couldn’t.

“As I was walking off the mound, I knew I couldn't go back out for a second [inning],” Cobb said on a Zoom call with reporters Saturday. “I felt like once I went in the dugout and I told him I can't go back out, the writing was on the wall for me there.”

All through the summer, Cobb knew his attempt to come back from hip issues was a long shot. He has been dealing with arthritis in his right hip all year, he revealed Saturday, but he said repeatedly that he wanted to give every attempt he could to make it back to pitch for the Tigers, who had signed him to a one-year, $15 million contract last December. He wanted to at least know he had given it his all to come back.

Monday was the moment he realized it wasn’t happening.

“I had a clear answer walking off the mound that it wasn't going to work, and I've done everything I could,” he said. “That was the best it was going to get, and that wasn't acceptable. It wasn't an acceptable product to put on the field, and it wasn't something where I could look to [manager] A.J. [Hinch] and [president of baseball operations] Scott [Harris] and say, ‘You can count on me.’ So the answers were there for me, which I'm thankful for.”

Cobb, who turns 38 next month, said he will undergo hip resurfacing surgery on his right hip. It’s an alternative to total hip replacement for younger people dealing with severe arthritis. It’s a surgery he needs to enjoy a quality of life in his post-playing career, even though he can’t bring himself to declare retirement.

“I can't utter those words quite yet,” he said. “But I think obviously I realize that's a big possibility.”

If this is it, Cobb ends his career with 233 starts over a 13-year Major League career, including an All-Star selection in 2023 with the Giants and four postseason appearances, including two with the Guardians last fall after returning from left hip surgery. He pitched well enough last October, including a Division Series start against the Tigers, that Detroit signed him to provide veteran depth in a young rotation.

“I obviously had some issues last year with my left hip, and then I went into the offseason and I felt great, I really did,” Cobb said. “I mean, I was working out, I was throwing, I was in zero pain. Went and signed with the Tigers, did my physical, passed, everything looked good.

“About three weeks, four weeks later, I'm ramping up, I'm getting off the mound, I'm doing full-go in my training just like any other offseason. And I literally woke up one day and couldn't walk. I kinda laughed it off at the time. I was like, 'I probably need to start taking my anti-inflammatories earlier this year.'”

Cobb said he underwent tests and forwarded results to his hip surgeon, who told him he had arthritis in the right hip.

“I had zero issues with my right hip last year. And during the time, I had arthritis, apparently,” Cobb said. “And from what I found out, you wake up one day and it just goes. Something in the cartilage collapses and it basically turns into the ball of your hip joint is bone on bone. There's no way to fix it.”

Cobb underwent a series of injections over the last several months to try to pitch, some of them for pain management, others to promote healing. His rehab starts were a matter of pain management, but he kept it up in hopes of providing the Tigers with something for the contract and for a chance to pitch in the postseason again.

“I can handle the pain,” he said. “It's when the pain and the stuff aren't matching up, and you aren't able to overcome the pain and have quality outings and what it takes to be at the big league level. For me to be in a position to earn the right to be on that team, I would need to be reliable and I would need to be effective. And I wasn't ever going to get to that point.

“I just have to thank the Tigers' medical staff, the front office, everybody for the attempt. We didn't leave one stone unturned. We did a lot, and we did some stuff that isn't in the norm of the baseball world, and they went out on a limb and took care of me and tried to make it happen. And it got me to a point where I was pitching again. I was going almost once every fourth or fifth day at one point until I just couldn't.”