Phillies Notes: Contreras likely out for season with elbow injury

Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. couldn't hide his disappointment and frustration while discussing yet another devastating injury to his team.

This time it was righthander Jose Contreras, who Amaro conceded is likely out for the season after suffering a complete tear of the ulnar collateral ligament and a flexor pronator tear.

The 40-year-old Contreras was limited to 17 games last year and eventually had elbow surgery on Sept. 2.

He suffered the new injury on the fifth pitch thrown to Omar Infante during Friday's 6-4 win over the Miami Marlins at Citizens Bank Park.

"It's unfortunate that it happened," Contreras said with third-base coach Juan Samuel as his interpreter. "It was on that one pitch."

Contreras entered Friday having not allowed a run in his previous six outings.

"I feel badly for him, and he worked pretty hard to get back to the point where he was starting to be pretty effective," Amaro said before Saturday's 5-4 loss to the Marlins. "It's a tough piece of news to take."

Imagine how Contreras feels.

"I worked hard and my command was there in the last four, five outings," Contreras said. "To have this happen again, it's very disappointing."

The Phillies will get a second opinion and send the MRI results to Dr. Lewis Yocum, who performed Contreras' earlier surgery.

"We want to send him the information to get his thoughts, but unfortunately we are pretty confident that he has some serious issues," Amaro said.

Contreras admits it will be difficult having a second surgery, but he is keeping an open mind about coming back.

"I'll try my best in the rehab," he said. "It's going to be hard but I'll give it a shot."

Righthander Michael Schwimer was recalled from Lehigh Valley and he pitched 1/3 of an inning in Saturday's loss. He got Hanley Ramirez on a groundout and walked Giancarlo Stanton before departing.

Amaro said there was no new news on Roy Halladay's injured shoulder, which the team says should keep the righthander out between six to eight weeks.

Halladay received a second opinion from New York Mets physician David Altchek on Wednesday. Since that visit, the Phillies have sent Altchek additional history on Halladay, including a 2009 MRI and a recent CT Scan.

"We are waiting to hear back from him," Amaro said.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that 20-year-old Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler was declared a free agent on Saturday and could negotiate with any team. The Phillies are among the teams that have a reported interest in the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Soler, although the early favorite for his services appears to be the Chicago Cubs.

Schwimer, who went 0-1 with an 8.53 ERA in five games previously this season with the Phillies, is looking for a better performance this time.

When asked how difficult it is to go back and forth between triple-A and the Phillies, Schwimer gave a candid response.

"It wouldn't be so much up and down if I could pitch better," Schwimer said before Saturday's game. "The up and down is all on me."

So he said there are no excuses if he doesn't perform well.

"There is the old saying - if you don't like it, pitch better," he said. "Up an down isn't easy but it certainly is not hard enough where it can be an excuse for performance."