LOS ANGELES -- Marlins outfielder Griffin Conine underwent season-ending surgery on his left shoulder on Tuesday, the club announced ahead of Wednesday's series finale at Dodger Stadium.
Over the weekend in Seattle, Miami had revealed that Conine would visit Dr. Neal ElAttrache on Monday in Los Angeles to get another opinion on his dislocated left shoulder. The meeting with the specialist was to determine the exact operation Conine would undergo. The operation required both labral and fracture repair.
"Griffin was playing so well and a key cog for us, an important piece," manager Clayton McCullough said on Wednesday morning. "The surgery was successful, and everything should be on track for Griffin to get through his rehab and be ready full-go come next Spring Training."
ElAttrache is the doctor who performed the surgery to repair Jung Hoo Lee’s left shoulder last season, after the San Francisco center fielder sustained a similar injury to Conine’s after crashing into the wall at Oracle Park.
“He did his, and [Lee] obviously made a full recovery and is playing great this year,” Conine said Saturday, before the Marlins’ 14-0 loss to the Mariners. “So that gives me confidence that that’s the right guy for it. Hopefully it’s easy.”
Added McCullough on Wednesday: "Just the nature of it, and to be right by him, it's just going to take some time. It's a big deal. I think it was just the timing of things and what went down that it looks like it's going to be next year for Griff."
Conine hurt his shoulder in the sixth inning of the Marlins’ 11-10 loss to the Phillies on April 19, jamming his arm into the ground awkwardly on a headfirst slide on an RBI double, and immediately exited the game with the trainer. The next day, the club placed Conine on the 60-day injured list. He underwent an MRI on April 21.
It is a big loss for the Marlins.
The 27-year-old Conine was hitting .281 with seven doubles and a .790 OPS in 20 games. Conine, who was called up for the first time on Aug. 26 last year, appeared in 30 of the Marlins’ final 32 games of the ‘24 season, finishing with a .268/.326/.451 slash line, three home runs and 12 RBIs.
Coming into his first full season in the big leagues, Conine had already made the first steps to improve on his end-of-year run last season. He’d dropped his chase rate from 32.9% (league average last year was 27.1%) down to 20.5%, good to land him in the 86th percentile of qualified hitters. He more than doubled his barrel rate, from 7.4% to 15.6%, putting him in the 84th percentile, and his hard-hit rate rose from 40.7% to 51.1%.
Conine’s average exit velocity through 17 games was 91.6 mph, second-best on the Marlins behind only Dane Myers (91.7 mph).
And when Conine got all of the ball, his Statcast numbers ranked up there with the best in baseball. His 117.4 mph double off Arizona’s Bryce Jarvis on April 15 was the sixth-hardest-hit ball this year, the third-hardest base hit and the hardest base hit by anyone not named Oneil Cruz.
“Definitely a lot of [emotions],” Conine said on Saturday. “I think by now it’s settled in a little more. The first couple of days were tougher. I think now, just looking ahead to getting it done, and then I can focus on rehab and setting goals and stuff like that, get timetables, get more info.
“But yeah, it sucks. I talked to a lot of people who have offered a lot of support, so that helps, for sure. And just being around the guys has helped.”
In the 10 games since Conine’s injury, the Marlins have started four different left fielders: Javier Sanoja, Kyle Stowers, Eric Wagaman and Ronny Simon. Wagaman has started four times during this stretch, including Wednesday.
"I think we'll continue to rotate guys through there," McCullough said. "It's nice to have some versatile pieces that can go out there and play and at least -- you start the game maybe in one setup, and knowing how the game goes, there are some guys that can come in as well. So I think we'll just continue to each day look at what we feel like is the best lineup construction for us to have success against that starter."