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BOSTON - It looks like Mariano Rivera is headed for surgery.

After visiting a pair of doctors in New York over the past two days, Rivera was diagnosed with calcification on top of his AC joint that is causing inflammation in his right, throwing, shoulder.

Rivera, who turns 39 in November, was given two options to treat the injury: either take a series of cortisone injections to manage the soreness, or undergo arthroscopic surgery that should wipe it out completely.

"I've been dealing with this the whole year," Rivera revealed. "A decision has to be made. I have to talk to my family, and obviously the front office, and we'll decide from there."

Rivera has a well-known aversion to needles, so that would seem an unlikely course of action. Surgery seems to make the most sense, as he would be expected to be ready to go by the start of spring training next February. Rivera has two years and $30 million remaining on the contract he signed last winter.

"Although every surgery has risks, it sounds like this would be very low-risk because it doesn't involve all those nasty terms like 'rotator cuff' and 'labrum,'" general manager Brian Cashman said. "What everybody's got to weigh, the club as well as Mo, is that you want to try to avoid altogether those little brush fires that would obviously continue to come over the next two years by taking care of it surgically now. But then when you say, 'Well, you take care of it surgically now,' there's always that risk, even if it's minimal, with any surgery. Those are the things we'll talk through together."

That Rivera has been dealing with the injury all year makes his stellar season all the more impressive. Rivera has converted 38 out of 39 save opportunities, posting a 1.43 ERA in 63 appearances.

Rivera didn't inform the Yankees of the shoulder issue until Wednesday, the day after the team had been officially eliminated from the postseason race. Once he did, the decision was made to send him to New York to be examined by a team doctor and to undergo a MRI.

"I was fighting to the end," Rivera said. "But we were eliminated, so I had to take care of my shoulder."