“Ben Brown, whose season ended in June after a recurring neck injury, is the biggest question mark. He still hasn’t been cleared to throw and surgery hasn’t been ruled out. At minimum, his immediate future is in question.”

Surgery for spinal stenosis of the neck aims to relieve compression and improve symptoms. Spinal stenosis is a compression of nerves in the spine. The condition most commonly affects the lumbar spine, the lower back, and the cervical spine in the neck.

A Swedish nationwide registry study of 36 patients found that ACDF for presumed segmental neck pain produced clinically meaningful improvement in roughly half of patients, with most benefit occurring