The surgery, which will be performed by Dr. Patrick DeMeo at Allegheny General Hospital, should take about 15 minutes.
Sanchez, who led the league in doubles last season with 53, had several cortisone shots throughout the season. However, he played through them to bat above .300 for a second straight season.
“It kind of got worse the last couple of days,” Sanchez told mlb.com on Thursday. “This is something that got worse in the middle of the night. Maybe I tweaked something after the game or during the game, that I didn’t feel, and I woke up in quite a bit of pain.
“It was one of those things that got so [much] worse that I couldn’t play, and that bothered me. It’s unfortunate, because I wanted to finish this week out and finish strong and finish on a high note. I tried to play through it, but it was just one of those things where I couldn’t.”
Sanchez, an infielder who was acquired from the Boston Red Sox in 2003, last played Tuesday during Pittsburgh’s 6-5 home victory against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He went one for three before being replaced in the seventh inning by José Castillo.
Sanchez, who graduated from Burbank High, told mlb.com that he had an MRI on the AC joint in that right shoulder on Tuesday, which revealed no structural damage around his rotator cuff. The Pittsburgh medical staff advised Sanchez to not attempt to play the final five games of the season.
“The training staff has done a great job of managing it and Freddy’s done a great job of playing through it,” new Pittsburgh General Manager Neal Huntington told mlb.com. “It was something that we anticipated having to get done at the end of the season, that flared up more. There’s no sense waiting any longer.”
Sanchez should be fully recovered from the surgery by late October or early November. It should not hinder him once spring training begins in February.
It’s been a frustrating year for Sanchez. Since April, he’s had periodic bouts with blurriness since a foreign object — said to be a small piece of metal — entered his eye and had to be removed. He’s since continued using eye drops to try and curb the problem.
“I’ve never had any problems with my eyes,” Sanchez told mlb.com. “Ever since that day, it’s been acting up. It’s kind of frustrating, because it’s nothing you can control.”
