Gee passes on surgery, progresses well

Dillon Gee, who turns 25 next week, will make his seventh major- league start Saturday for the Mets. Two years ago, he felt like his career might be over.

In 2009, at Triple-A Buffalo, Gee tried to pitch with searing pain in his right shoulder, and gritted his teeth through nine starts for the Bisons. Ultimately, Gee didn't need a doctor to tell him he was in bad shape. It was his Buffalo teammate Tim McNab who made the snap diagnosis while the two played catch before a game.

"He was like, dude, you look horrible, stop throwing," Gee said. "I couldn't even raise my arm over my shoulder. I was shot-putting everything. I didn't want to tell anyone, but he told me that I had to say something. They sent me to New York the next day."

An MRI revealed Gee had suffered a partial tear of his labrum, and that really didn't come as a shock. Gee knew exactly when it happened, too. During the offseason, after a combined 2.92 ERA in 25 starts for Class A St. Lucie and Double-A Binghamton, Gee hired a personal trainer -- and hurt himself doing push-ups.

"I just felt a pop in my shoulder," Gee said. "It kind of clicked a little bit. It didn't hurt right away, so I kind of thought nothing of it. But the next day it just felt really tight and sore. That feeling never went away."

Still, Gee was afraid to reveal the discomfort, fearing that it would sabotage his development. He pitched in Puerto Rico, then went straight to major-league camp for spring training. By the time he reached frigid Buffalo, Gee figured his days were numbered.

At first, when given the MRI results, Gee wanted surgery. He believed the better course was to take care of the issue immediately. "It was my first real injury, and I just wanted to get it fixed and move on," Gee said. "I was devastated. I thought I might have thrown my last pitch. That's what goes through your mind -- that this game could be over for me now."

On the advice of the medical staff, Gee opted for rehabilitation. Plus, Gee had heard plenty of horror stories about pitchers never making it back from shoulder surgery. "Looking back, that's the best advice I've ever been given," Gee said.

He got lucky, too. After months of rehab in Florida, the Mets had planned to have him squeeze in one start before calling it a season. But Gee sprained his ankle during agility drills.

"They told me to just go home," Gee said. "It seemed bad at the time, but it was probably a good thing because I wasn't ready. I was trying to be ready, trying to prove that I could do it, but it wasn't the right thing to do. I didn't feel good."

That was a fateful ankle sprain. The following year, with his rested shoulder stronger, he went 13-8 with a 4.96 ERA and 165 strikeouts in 161 1/3 innings for Buffalo. As a late-season call-up, he was 2-2 with a 2.18 ERA in five starts for the Mets.

Gee still has the labrum tear -- he does rotator-cuff exercises, takes a steady dose of anti-inflammatory medication and lots and lots of ice. Gee hasn't had an MRI since the first one.

"One of the reasons why I didn't have surgery is that the doctor told me, if we did an MRI of 100 major-league pitchers, 80 of them would have a torn labrum," Gee said. "Most people in here probably have some sort of shoulder injury.

"You don't want to know what's going on there, because if you did know, you'd be very upset. We just try to do as much as we can until we have to get something done."