Ty Johnson to have knee surgery in May

Back in late October Ty Johnson suffered an injury to his knee playing flag football. After the incident Ty slowly worked his way back into being able to do physical activies, besides sprinting. For the last few months he's been going to physical therapy to rehab, but after a recent MRI Ty was informed that he will need surjery to repair the damaged cartilage that doctors identified in his knee. After the operation Ty is expected to be on crutches for 6-8 weeks.

What does this all mean for Ty and the Rapids? Well, let's look at the forecast for future tournaments...

JAL XII will either be played in March or May. Regardless of which, THERE WILL be tournament in May whether it's JAL XII or JAL XIII. After that there will likely be two more tournaments over the summer, one in late June or early July, and the other in August.

If JAL XII is played in March then Ty will play through the injury, just as he did in JAL X and JAL XI. Playing through the injury shouldn't be a problem, if you recall that in JAL X Ty won MVP and the championship. That performance was probably the best in league history and now knowing that he did it on a bumbed knee makes it all the more impressive. The point is, Ty would play just fine.

If however, JAL XII is played in May, Ty may not play another pitch in the JAL until possibly August.

Another important thing to keep in mind with all of this is that Ty only has one tournament left on his contract with the Rapids. So, no matter what happens, the future for the team doesn't look bright. Even if JAL XII is in March and the team does well, Ty will become a free agent afterward. This means the Rapids will have two options, and neither are good. 1. They re-sign Ty, but then have to wait out (and likely stuggle to be competitive in) multiple tournaments before he can return, or 2. They don't re-sign their star player because of that, or they try but he simply chooses to sign with someone else.

Only time will tell, but whenever a star player in a sports league is expected to miss a lot of time it usually has a big impact on everthing.