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Dustin McGowan has been diagnosed as having a tear in his right rotator cuff and surgery is a possibility.
McGowan, long considered to have the best pure stuff in the Toronto Blue Jays' organization but who has had a stutter-step 2008, came out of his last start on Tuesday after four innings complaining of soreness. His velocity was down noticeably.
McGowan underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination on Wednesday and is scheduled to meet in the next couple of days with Dr. Timothy Kremchek, the Cincinnati-based orthopedic specialist who performed B.J. Ryan's Tommy John surgery.
"We're not anticipating anything good or bad at this point," general manager J.P. Ricciardi said when asked about the severity of the tear.
"I think right now, we're probably looking at … I don't know how long but I'm going to say four weeks.
"The severity of it, we won't know until it really calms down. Anything with this, the best-case scenario is that it calms down and he's able to get throwing again."
