Pollock unlikely to return for regular season, surgeon says

A.J. Pollock probably won't take the field for the Arizona Diamondbacks this season after undergoing elbow surgery on his fractured right elbow, though he may be able to take the field for a potential playoff run, hand specialist Dr. Don Sheridan said Saturday.

"If everything goes extremely well it's going to be at least three months before A.J. is going to be released to start baseball activities," Sheridan told MLB.com's Steve Gilbert. "It could be the entire season, but I'm very hopeful and look forward to the day that we see A.J. run out of the dugout and take his position and have a good playoffs this year."

Pollock, who battled elbow soreness all spring, fractured his elbow (for the second time in his career) April 1 in his first Cactus League game in roughly three weeks. On Tuesday, the 28-year-old underwent a three-hour procedure in which Sheridan removed a broken screw from his elbow - inserted in 2010, when Pollock fractured his elbow the first time - and placed plugs of cancellous bone into the elbow to try to stimulate healing.

"Although this is a very complex problem, I am very optimistic about his return," Sheridan said. "We've pulled out all the stops. I can't think of anything that we're not doing. The only bit of pessimism in the whole thing is we're trying to get a bone to heal that has not been healed together for some time. That's why we're taking this so seriously and doing everything we can."

In Pollock's absence, the Diamondbacks have used Chris Owings and Socrates Brito in center field through the first week of the 2016 campaign, with the pair combining to hit .207 with no extra-base hits and no walks in their first six games.

Pollock, the 17th overall pick in the 2009 draft, enjoyed the best season of his career last year, hitting .315/.367/.498 with 20 home runs, 39 stolen bases, and 6.6 WAR in 157 games while earning his first All-Star appearance.