MINNEAPOLIS -- John Danks' season was officially shut down Tuesday, as the Chicago White Sox announced that their opening-day starter will undergo exploratory surgery on his left shoulder Monday, two hours after the non-waiver trading deadline.

The operation will be performed at Rush Surgery Center by shoulder experts Dr. Tony Romeo and Greg Nicholson, and assisted by Dr. Charles Bush-Joseph and Nick Verma.

The Sox hope Danks will return by the start of spring training.

“It’s tough," Danks said. "Obviously, this whole time this has been the absolute last resort. We’ve been going on eight to nine weeks, and we haven’t made improvements that we hoped and thought would be making. You do what you got to do. And we got to the point where we couldn’t think but help start thinking about next year and cutting our losses this year and try to be ready by spring.

“These guys are playing well enough this year without me and getting (Francisco) Liriano certainly helps, and I definitely think there’s plenty here now that me being out isn’t going to kill this team. I’ll be a cheerleader for the next two months, three months hopefully.”
Danks has been sidelined more than two months because of a left shoulder strain. He last pitched for the Sox on May 19, throwing six shutout innings against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. But the Sox put him on the 15-day disabled list after detecting weakness in his shoulder.

Danks threw four innings during a minor league rehabilitation start for Triple-A Charlotte on June 12 but felt achy two days later.

“I got to a point where I was well enough to pitch in a rehab start and felt good," Danks said. "I had good enough stuff. I was just having trouble coming back, bouncing back. The next couple days it was a struggle to even play catch, and that’s not normal for me. I usually bounce back fairly well and I’d say at least average. It was a struggle and it was just definitely something there, something going on and we got to a point where you got to do what you got to do.

"And it’s unfortunate you have to do this, but I definitely trust these doctors. These guys were my first choice, for sure, not only with their track record but they’ve been on board since the first step, so it’s worked out as well as it possibly can with the work Hermie (Schneider) and Brian Ball have done for me, certainly the doctors. I anticipate it going perfect and like I said, being ready for spring training.”

The Sox revamped his throwing program last Friday in a last-ditch effort to bring him back by the start of September, but Danks was unable to throw off a mound Monday.

Danks, 27, is in the first year of a five-year, $65 million contract.

Thursday morning's M&H interview with Coop is going to be interesting.

Can Coop be more of an irascible asshat than normal? These and other questions will be answered on the next episode of Coop.

This is bad. A lot of cash invested in that arm.

Confirmed.

That was yesterday's gimmick.

We need a new one for today.

Hard not to argue.

It's concerning that they never quite new how to deal with this injury or even what it was specifically was months after he was shut down.