Jake Westbrook recovering from surgery on non-throwing shoulder

Jake Westbrook, who signed a two-year, $16.5 million contract to stay with the Cardinals earlier this week, is currently recovering from surgery on his non-throwing shoulder. Our own Aaron Gleeman first passed along news of the surgery last month.

The procedure, which Westbrook told the Associated Press was neither major nor minor, but something “in between,” will prevent him from swinging a bat until early on in spring training.

“It only hurt to swing so I wasn’t too worried about it,” Westbrook said. “I should be good to go when the season starts, and I don’t think they’re too concerned about my hitting. “I’ll be good to go throwing the ball like any other year, so I’m not really sweating the whole swinging thing.”

The 33-year-old right-hander said he originally hurt the shoulder on a swing and miss against Josh Johnson in his second start with the Cardinals on August 7. Welcome to the National League, pal!

Westbrook managed to post a 3.48 ERA and 55/24 K/BB ratio in 12 starts after coming over from the Indians at the deadline, so the injury obviously didn’t affect his performance on the mound or the Cardinals’ willingness to award him with a new contract.