Stottlemyre’s Season Over Before It Starts

Complications of elbow surgery last fall will keep Todd Stottlemyre from pitching this season.

The Arizona Diamondbacks said Friday that the right-hander may need nine more months to recover and will undergo minor surgery on his right shoulder during that time.

Stottlemyre, 36, started 18 games last year, going 9-6 with a 4.91 earned-run average.

He was sidelined two weeks last June because of the elbow injury, then was out another two months with the same injury. He started four games in September, then doctors determined surgery to readjust the nerve in his pitching elbow was necessary.

Boston Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek will be sidelined at least two months because of a broken right elbow. Varitek was hurt Thursday night while making a diving catch of a foul ball by Detroit’s Shane Halter.

Varitek is expected to have surgery Tuesday on a broken bone on the outside of his right elbow.

The Chicago White Sox put Jose Valentin and Herbert Perry (sore Achilles tendon)on the disabled list. Valentin was put on the 15-day disabled list after leaving Friday’s game against the Cubs because of a sore right hamstring. McKay Christensen and Joe Crede were recalled from Triple-A Charlotte. . . . The Oakland A’s put outfielder Adam Piatt on the 15-day disabled list because of viral meningitis. . . . Second baseman Carlos Febles was activated by the Kansas City Royals, who designated outfielder Raul Ibanez for assignment. . . . Infielder Tony Fernandez, 39, released by the Milwaukee Brewers last month, signed a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays. . . . Baltimore signed outfielder Damon Buford, son of former Oriole outfielder Don Buford, to a minor league contract.

Baseball owners and umpires each filed a suit, asking a federal judge to overturn an arbitrator’s decision ordering that nine of 22 umpires who lost their jobs in 1999 be rehired. Neither side was happy with the decision arbitrator Alan Symonette issued May 11. The Major League Umpires Assn. wants all 22 rehired, and the owners don’t want to take any of them back. . . . Boston Bruin owner Jeremy Jacobs, former Pittsburgh Penguin owner Roger Marino and Cablevision Chairman Charles Dolan are among the potential bidders for the Red Sox, the Boston Globe reported.

Right-hander Kris Honel, the 16th overall pick in the amateur draft, agreed to a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox and will get a signing bonus of about $1.6 million. . . . Right-hander Justin Pope, the 28th pick in the draft, agreed to a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals.