Blyleven Has Surgery, Is Out for the Season

Bert Blyleven’s chances of earning 300 victories dimmed considerably Tuesday, when surgeons found an extensive tear in the rotator cuff of the Angel right-hander’s pitching shoulder.

Blyleven, 40, will need at least nine months’ rehabilitation and might need as long as a year. He has won 279 games during his 20-year career, the 26th-highest total in major league history, and has pitched 4,837 1/3 innings, the 16th-highest total.

Blyleven won 17 games in 1989 but was 8-7 with a 5.24 earned-run average last season. A tear in his rotator cuff was found and repaired during arthroscopic surgery Oct. 1, and he progressed reasonably well in the early weeks of spring training.

The tear was confirmed during an arthroscopic examination Tuesday and then repaired in during surgery by Lewis Yocum, assisted by Frank Jobe, at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood. Blyleven is expected to be discharged Thursday.

Blyleven signed a contract extension a year ago that guarantees him $1.75 million this season. The Angels have options for 1992 and ’93 with a buyout clause; they would have to pay him $2 million next season or could buy him out for $250,000. A buyout would cancel the remainder of the contract.

“It’s unfortunate and I feel bad for him and wish him well,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “It’s going to be a long and difficult rehab for him.

“He was trying to work through it. I think he realized since the previous procedure something else had happened, that something wasn’t right.”

Said third baseman Gary Gaetti, who played with Blyleven on the Minnesota Twins’ 1987 World Series championship team: “I know his age is going to work against him, but he’s the kind of person that if somebody can come back, he can.

“He was never one to fake something like that. Even the things he did during spring training were quite a feat (considering the injury).”