The Philadelphia Phillies will soon put Jamie Moyer on the disabled list with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. For many pitchers these days that injury means a year on the shelf recovering from Tommy John Surgery. For the 47-year-old Moyer, however, there is a strong likelihood that it could mean the end of his career.

When I first saw news of the injury I cringed. And the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Matt Gelb confirmed Thursday that there is at least some chance that if the injury is, in fact, serious enough to require the reconstructive surgery that Moyer may instead decide to hang it up.

So why the fanfare? Moyer has pitched for nearly two-and-a-half decades for … seven teams, if I counted right. And the last half-dozen or so he has hardly been great. But he is a gamer. He got out of the gates slowly this year, creating speculation that his spot in the rotation and perhaps on the Phillies’ roster this season might have been in jeopardy. He turned things around, though, and in May became the oldest pitcher ever to throw a shutout.

After that game I took a gander at Moyer’s career statistics and was dumbfounded to realize not only that he had been around forever but that for at least a half-dozen or so years in the late 1990s and early 2000s he was a pretty damn good pitcher.

Would you have pegged Moyer as having 267 career wins? Even over 24 years I didn’t realize he was that close to approaching the 300 plateau that sort of artificially puts starting pitchers in an elite class.

I’m not saying the guy is a Hall of Famer or anything. His 4.24 ERA and 511 homeruns allowed, his appearance in just one All-Star game and his lack of a Cy Young Award win illustrate that he was far from a dominant pitcher at any point in his career. He’s never been considered the best in the game and it’s going to be hard to make a strong case for his enshrinement, especially when there are guys like Bert Blyleven and Jim Kaat who are still on the outside looking in at Cooperstown.

But if this is the end for Moyer, he does deserve the respect due to someone who may not have been the most talented player out there but who, through guts and guile, found a way to get it done for a long damn time. He also comes off as one of those quiet guys who represents himself with class and dignity.

If he does decide to attempt a comeback I wish him luck. If not, I wish him a healthy retirement and the satisfaction of a job well done.