Britton: "This is not the way I envisioned ending my time there"

Orioles closer Zach Britton sat in a car yesterday with his wife Courtney and the tears flowed. This isn't how he wants to end his career with the Orioles, the longest-tenured player on their roster set to undergo surgery Thursday to repair his right Achilles tendon. Confident that he's going to pitch later in the summer, but unsure if it's with the team that drafted and developed him - first as a starter and later a dominant ninth inning specialist.

Dr. Kenneth Jung of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic in Los Angeles will handle the procedure, which could sideline Britton for six months.

How unfair after the hours spent rehabbing from a strained left forearm and sore left knee that limited him to 38 games this season, after he was cleared for normal workouts and looked forward to a normal spring training and return to form.

Why Britton? The question kept pounding inside his head.

Here are excerpts from a phone interview earlier this afternoon:

On how the injury occurred: "I was just sprinting in the morning and just going to push off the line for one of the sprints, and it felt like somebody hit me in the back of the leg and I went down. I went up to the doctor and right away he could tell that I had ruptured my Achilles. So it's just kind of, I don't know, devastating news, I guess. A light way to put it. It sucks. I was throwing and feeling really good. I was throwing a bunch of bullpens and feeling really good."

On freak nature of injury: "It's like, nowadays the way guys train, the calf gets so strong that it's putting a lot of tension on the Achilles, so it's kind of like a freak thing. It could be the shoes that you wear, the surface that you're on, a combination. It's just unfortunate."

On examination and pending surgery by Dr. Jung: "Surgery's going to be tomorrow. I went to see him yesterday. We went up there to meet him and he was pretty positive. What he saw, obviously, it wasn't the best news, but it didn't retract. I guess sometimes the Achilles will retract and then you have to go up there and get it and pull it down. This just kind of fell over, kind of flapped over, and it's just a reattach to the muscle. It didn't rip from the bone. So there's positives from within the (crappy) situation. So it's not like we have to anchor it back to the bone. I got pretty lucky in that aspect. And the fact that I pitch for a living and I don't play football or I'm not a position player makes the recovery a lot easier because I'm not doing those special movements like those guys."

On injury being to his landing foot: "He said it's better than my drive leg, so once I'm able to support my weight, he said the recovery can go as quickly or as slowly as that. It's just going to be dependent on how quickly I can put weight on it without overly stressing the Achilles so that it heals."

On knowing he'll pitch next season: "Oh, yeah, absolutely. He was pretty positive that that was going to be (the case.) Right away, he was like, 'This isn't something that's going to affect you long term. Once we have the surgery and the rehab ... It's not an arm injury or anything. It's not something that's going to affect the way you pitch. It's just a crappy thing that you're going to have to deal with to recover and once you get back you won't have any issues.' Yeah, he was confident based on what he saw on the MRI. Once we have the surgery, we'll probably have more clarity once he gets in there and sees it, but yeah, he was confident that I was going to pitch this year. Hopefully, three or four months. It just depends on a lot of different things. He didn't want to give me a timetable yet until he actually did the surgery."

On cursing his fate and handling the horrible news with wife Courtney: "We just got in the car after the day was over and started crying. I put in a lot of work coming to California and doing physical therapy on my knee, started throwing earlier than I normally do. I felt really good, I felt right where I wanted to be like the past offseasons prior to last year when I had that injury in spring. I felt great, I felt like myself again. Arm slot was there. I just felt really good. I was excited to get the season going just because I put the work in to be ready. It's a gut-punch. Like, why? Why now? Why after all of that? So it's just frustrating."

On the trade rumors not bothering him: "I felt really good, so it was OK, because I felt good. I was training well and throwing and I felt good, so I figured, wherever I end up I feel good, I feel like myself. I was confident in that. Now I'm disappointed because I won't be able to pitch right away like I wanted to, whether it was with the Orioles or somebody else. So it's just kind of, it's hard to explain right now. Maybe in a few weeks I'll be able to process it more. I've just been like, there's been a lot going on."

On conversations with executives Dan Duquette and Brady Anderson: "I'm going to talk to Dan today. He asked me to call him. I talked to Brady last night, but it was more so just as a friend. We worked out together for so long. He knows how hard I was working in this offseason and just frustrated with me. It just stinks. He knows the work I was putting in to get ready, so he was devastated along with me."

On possibility of Orioles releasing him: "They tendered me the contract, so they can still release me and just pay me termination pay. Yeah, it's a reality obviously based on where my salary's at. But right now I talked to my agent about it and we're just going to roll with it and see what happens and see what they decide to do. Obviously, I'm going to pitch again this year and it just depends on what they want to do. If the time I'm going to pitch is worth it for them. But I'm lucky that it's not an arm injury. You've seen some guys get multi-year deals recovering from Tommy John and this isn't something that's nearly as lengthy as that, so I'm sure there will be an opportunity for me out there somewhere out there, maybe a team that thinks they're going to be in the playoffs. By the time I come back I won't have as many innings on my arm or something and get an opportunity. Hopefully, I can finish out my career strong in Baltimore. It would kind of be a crappy way to end it after just being there forever, since I was 18. This is not the way I envisioned ending my time there."