Eflin undergoes knee surgery to fix chronic issue

PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies will enter the offseason hoping that two of their top young pitchers will be healthy and ready to pitch by Spring Training.

The team announced Friday afternoon that right-hander Zach Eflin had season-ending surgery to repair the patellar tendon in his right knee. He will be immobilized for the next six weeks, which will allow a stress fracture in his right foot to heal. Eflin is expected to have the same surgery on his left knee in six weeks.

“It seems like that’s where it’s headed,” Phillies general manager Matt Klentak said about the second surgery. “If everything proceeds according to plan, he should be no problem for Spring Training. We’ll see.

“The hope here is that it’s going to alleviate the problem and that he’s not going to have to deal with it. And in just talking candidly with Zach last night, while not excited to undergo the knife today, he was pretty excited about the possibility of coming to Spring Training next year pain-free for the first time in his life.”

Eflin, 22, said he has had knee problems since he was 10 or 11 years old, a problem the Phillies said they have known since they acquired him from the Dodgers in December 2014 in the Jimmy Rollins trade. But they also said they also did not believe two knee surgeries were an eventuality.

“There was not an imminent surgery looming when we …

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