As suspected, right-hander Colin Rea has a tear in his ulnar collateral ligament and will undergo Tommy John surgery in a procedure that could wipe out both this season and the 2017 campaign. Pitchers have returned from elbow reconstructions in 12 months, but a 14- to 18-month recovery window that has become the norm throughout the game would likely wipe out next year.

View the Video Colin Rea returned to Padres

Either way, Padres manager Andy Green reiterated Friday that the 26-year-old Rea still fit squarely in the Padres’ blueprint.

“We’re disappointed, but he still fits very much into our plans,” Green said. “We have every anticipation of him getting back and being fully healthy and being ready to go.”

The timing of Rea’s news is certainly awkward.

“We’re disappointed, but he still fits very much into our plans,” Green said. “We have every anticipation of him getting back and being fully healthy and being ready to go.

The Padres have come under scrutiny regarding the exchange of medical information since Rea was returned to the Padres just days after he was included in the deal that sent Andrew Cashner to the Marlins. Rea acknowledged pitching through what he thought was general soreness leading into his Miami debut when he pulled himself out of his start on July 30 after just 3 1/3 innings with discomfort in his elbow.

“I just knew that that day it gradually got worse and worse throughout the start,” Rea said Friday. “It got to the point where I just wasn’t able to throw anymore. My velocity was dropping every inning. That last inning was the lowest it had been all year, so I knew something wasn’t right.

“It wasn’t like a certain pitch, but it was a gradual decline.”

Rea’s fastball was averaging 89.1 mph in the fourth inning of that start, according to data at brooksbaseball.net. It averaged 92.7 mph in the first inning and had averaged between 92 and 95 mph over his previous starts with the Padres.

The fact that he had generally thrown harder this year (93.2 mph) than he did last year (92.5 mph) had been a storyline in his development since he showed up in spring training .

The Padres had also planned on governing his workload as the year progressed as Rea had never thrown more than 139 innings in a season.

“Obviously, the timing of the whole thing wasn’t great,” said Rea, who is 5-5 with a 4.82 ERA, 80 strikeouts and a 1.42 WHIP through 102 2/3 innings this year. “The biggest thing is to get this done with and move forward and work hard through the rehab process and try to come back better.”

Rea has not yet decided on a surgery date or surgeon.

