Orange County Register

The examination of Maicer Izturis’ injured left thumb Thursday revealed a torn ulnar collateral ligament. Izturis will have season-ending surgery on Tuesday.

“That’s a tough loss,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “We feel terrible for Izzy because we know how much a part of our club he was. It’s obviously going to put some more weight on other players to carry the load.

“We have to move on but he was a big part of what we’ve done.”

Izturis originally injured his thumb on a diving play at Yankee Stadium on August 1. After sitting out a week, he returned to play but re-injured the thumb on another dive in his second game back Wednesday. Scioscia said there were no second thoughts about Izturis returning to action because the same re-injury could have happened “if he’d been on the DL for a month” before coming back.

The surgery will sideline Izturis for any playoff run by the Angels as well but he is expected to be back at full strength in time for spring training. Dr. Steven Shin will perform the surgery at the Kerlan-Jobe Healthsouth Clinic in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

With Izturis out, Scioscia said Erick Aybar will become the every-day shortstop. Whether he continues to bat second in the lineup every day is another matter. Izturis was much more adept than Aybar at working counts.

Scioscia said there are other options he might explore for that spot in the order but “right now we’ll give Erick a shot.”

Aybar has hit .286 to Izturis’ .269. But Aybar has averaged a team-low 3.29 pitches per plate appearance (nearly a half-pitch per plate appearance lower than Izturis).

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