Oct 14th 2008 5:30PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
Believe it or not, Albert Pujols played all season with a bum elbow — considering he hit .357 with a 190 OPS+ while playing hurt, it’s a little scary to think about what he would have done completely healthy.

There were rumors that he’d ultimately require Tommy John surgery (which isn’t quite as scary for non-pitchers but is still a major operation) but he dodged that bullet during an operation on Monday. Instead of replacing his injured ligament, he underwent an operation to simply move a nerve that was being irritated. From Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
“I would not describe it as a big-deal procedure,” Paletta said during a teleconference Monday.

The procedure transferred the ulnar nerve from a groove running along the inside of Pujols’ elbow to in front of the joint’s bony prominence. Paletta called the nerve “clearly irritated and inflamed.” Before surgery, the nerve popped from its groove whenever Pujols tried to straighten the elbow, according to Paletta. The condition caused tingling and numbness in Pujols’ right pinky and ring finger.
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