Surgery an option for Floyd; Danks nears return

ARLINGON -- Gavin Floyd confirmed Thursday night that a muscular tear was found near his right elbow and surgery is one of the options to fix his injury.

According to the White Sox, Floyd has a tear in the flexor muscle and an unstable ulnar collateral ligament. He visited with Dr. Keith Meister on Tuesday in Arlington and will get a third opinion Monday when he visits Dr. David Altchek in New York.

Floyd left Saturday's home game against the Rays with what was diagnosed as a right flexor strain and was placed on the disabled list on Sunday. The right-hander intends to weigh all of his options before making the final decision.

"We'll wait until the last doctor so I can think about it, pray about it and take it from there," said Floyd, following the club's 3-1 victory over the Rangers. "You just look at everything and make the best decision you can.

"There's options of surgery. There's options of rehab. And everything like that," Floyd said. "We just got to weigh the options and see what happens. Go Monday and see what happens."

Earlier Thursday, White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said that the team hoped "to have a treatment plan next week" for Floyd.

This trip to the disabled list marks Floyd's third since early July of last season for issues in the same general area. From July 8-23, 2012, Floyd was out of action with right elbow tendinitis. He then returned to the DL from Aug. 27 to Sept. 12 with the same flexor strain he has been diagnosed with presently.

Floyd's MRI exam on Saturday night showed no structural damage. It also showed the flexor strain to be in a different spot from last year. While White Sox manager Robin Ventura certainly didn't talk about a changed diagnosis during his Thursday pregame session, his comments concerning Floyd sounded as if the right-hander was getting information on something more severe than an extended disabled list stint.

"The news isn't always good. It's just one of those where you keep getting a different opinion just to make sure you have all your bases covered," said Ventura. "Once you go there, it's for a long time.

"For him, it's the comfort of knowing he's doing the right thing, getting enough opinions from experts. I'm not an expert. I'm going to let them kind of figure that out. Ultimately it's his decision."

As Floyd moves into what could possibly be season-ending territory, John Danks took a major step toward a Major League return via a Thursday night rehab start at the home of Double-A Birmingham. Danks, who is working to regain velocity, arm strength and location after Aug. 6 season-ending arthroscopic shoulder surgery last season, pitched seven innings against Chattanooga and allowed two runs on five hits, while striking out one and walking one.

"I felt good about all my pitches, but especially my cutter, which is a great sign because that's been the one pitch I've struggled with to this point," Danks said via text after throwing 55 of his 86 pitches for strikes. "I haven't heard about my velocity, but it felt like the ball was coming out pretty good."

Danks' velocity checked in somewhere between 84-87 mph early in the game, per the Birmingham radar gun, but hit as high as 91 mph later. The next rehab start for Danks could come May 7 with Triple-A Charlotte.