The Angels announced Friday that relief pitcher Justin Anderson will need Tommy John elbow surgery due to a UCL tear.
Anderson, 27, has pitched two seasons for the Angels, mostly as a middle reliever. He has worked 102.1 innings with a 4.75 ERA, a 1.52 WHIP, and a 11.2 K/9. As he is decently troubled by the walk and the home run ball, his 2019 campaign was worse than his 2018 campaign, but he was still expected to be a key cog in the Angels bullpen in the shortened 60-game season.
If Anderson does undergo the surgery on Wednesday and his recovery time takes the usual length, he will miss most if not all of the 2021 season, and the start of 2022 could be at risk.
The Angels pitching staff seems to be fairly susceptible to TJ surgery. In February of this year, Jose Soriano underwent the procedure, and of course ace Shohei Ohtani has yet to pitch in a Major League game since his surgery, although he should be ready for this season.
And this is surprising how?
Honestly, I fell less bad about this happening in 2020.
Depending on the day, I see 2020 as either a wasted season or a practice season. At least we get to see some baseball!
Where the hell is everyone? C’mon…. Let’s comment the heck out of this place!
Far too much resignation for this kind of news
Oh yeah, now it feels like baseball season.
As H.T. Ennis would say, lesigh.
I shouldn’t laugh
It’s preferable to crying, in my experience. Makes funerals really awkward, though.
Funny stuff.
Speaking of funerals, I forgot to mention that Justin Anderson’s grandmother just passed away a day or two ago. So obviously this is a REALLY bad time for him personally.
Oh no =(
Hope he’s doing okay
Aw man, now I feel like a bitch. Hope he and his family are alright.
It’s a loss but I still pretty good about this bullpen.
….. until the next guy goes down.
Yeah my optimism is weighed heavily on Robles/Buttrey/Middleton. One them down, I feel different.
The other thing to remember is that because our SP is so suspect and thin the pen will be that much more important.
I am expecting Maddon to use the pen liberally, so losing JA is not a small loss. Plus, I was expecting him to really make a big jump forwards this season. Alas….
Nothing says another season of Angels baseball like ” X has been confirmed to have a UCL tear and will undergo Tommy John Surgery.
I’m sure he’d rather get to play in 2020 and 2021, accumulate service time, and avoid surgery, but at least he should escape the risk of playing during pre-vaccine COVID 19 and still get his pro rata pay.
Hopefully the new pitching coach, a hard-throwing lefty who I believe never needed TJ, will implement some training regimes to help save pitcher arms. That said, the Angels need to take a hard look at their minor-league pitching philosophy.
And there it is. Knew it had to be someone eventually. Have a trAdition to uphold.
One word : shit.