TAMPA, Fla. -- Bobby Murcer will undergo a biopsy early next week to determine if the cancer he has been battling for more than a year has returned.

Murcer, a former All-Star outfielder and longtime member of the Yankees' broadcast team, had an MRI exam performed on Tuesday that revealed a spot on his brain.

Murcer's wife, Kay, sent an emotional e-mail to friends and family in which she said the MRI revealed "an area that doctors are concerned about," the New York Daily News reported.

"Please pray that it will be determined to be necrosis [scar tissue from the radiation], and not another cancerous tumor," Kay said in the e-mail. "It's one of the two."

Murcer, 61, is scheduled to undergo a biopsy on Monday at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he was operated on in December 2006 for incurable brain cancer. Since the surgery, Murcer has been undergoing regular MRI scans every other month.

He told the Daily News that he will have to miss the first two Spring Training games he had been scheduled to work. The Yankees open their exhibition schedule on Friday against the University of South Florida; the YES Network plans to open Grapefruit League coverage on Sunday, when the Yankees host the Phillies.

Murcer was a five-time All-Star during his 17 big league seasons, with four of those All-Star appearances coming as a member of the Yankees. He batted .277 with 252 home runs and 1,043 RBIs in 1,908 Major League games, and also played for the Cubs and Giants.

For most of the last 24 years, Murcer has worked as a Yankees broadcaster. Murcer was in the radio booth as color analyst from 1983-85, and has been on TV as a color commentator since 1987. He served as the team's assistant general manager in 1986.