Pirates prospect Nick Kingham underwent Tommy John surgery yesterday, the club announced. He’ll miss all of this year and a significant chunk of 2016.
It’s always disappointing to lose a year of development and take on the risk of a surgery, of course, but the news is all the more difficult for Pittsburgh given that Kingham seemed close to the big leagues. As Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review notes on Twitter, Kingham was probably the Bucs pitching prospect who was best prepared to join the major league club this year.
While both Baseball America and MLB.com rated Kingham only the club’s sixth-best prospect entering the year, it’s a strong overall group of top-end prospects. MLB.com currently rates Kingham the #68 prospect in all of baseball, crediting him with three solid to above-average pitches. Overall, his value lies less in his upside than in the reasonable expectation that he’ll settle in as a mid-to-back-of-the-rotation starter. (Baseball America calls him a “solid No. 4 starter” in the making.)
A fourth-round pick back in 2010, Kingham progressed steadily and reached Triple-A for the first time last year. He opened 2015 back at Indianapolis for his age-23 season. Over 119 1/3 innings at the highest level of the minors to date, Kingham has worked to a 3.77 ERA with 7.3 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9.
Pittsburgh’s rotation has been excellent thus far, producing the second-lowest ERA in the league (just behind the division-rival Cardinals). With Charlie Morton back in action, and the team’s Triple-A rotation (including Casey Sadler, Clayton Richard, Chis Volstad, Adrian Sampson, and Wilfredo Boscan) all putting up good results at Triple-A, the club seems to have adequate depth as things stand.
Looking ahead at 2016, though, the loss of Kingham could sting. While only veteran A.J. Burnett is set to hit the open market among the team’s current array of starters, Kingham would have increased the team’s flexibility in structuring its roster. The news seems to make a Burnett return somewhat more likely, though we’re a long ways off from having any real idea how that situation will play out.
This could really set Kingham back, probably look at a 2016 September call up as earliest Big League ETA now.
That’s tough for both parties involved… When is Tallion supposed to be back though? He wasn’t far from getting called up before his injury, and you’d figure he would get the call up as soon as he shows he’s ready to handle a larger workload.
Per Sawchik: “Pirates are taking a very conservative approach with Taillon. I suspect he has a 2016 eta.”
This injury hurts even more given that information. I wouldn’t be surprised if they make a deadline deal for an expiring contract now.
Aaron Harang Phillies makes sense !
I think Taillon was going to be called up last year but then he got hurt, hopefully he comes up soon so he can join cole in that rotation with liraino, Pirates are taking a conservative approach with him just like the o’s are with dylan bundy
Clayton Richard next man up?
After Worley, I’m thinking it would probably be Sampson or Sadler first…then Richard or Volstad
Sadler needs to prove his mettle in the MLB. This would give him a crack at starting after multiple bullpen stints.
Another one bites the dust 🙁 sigh.
At this rate, the writers here may need Tommy John surgery from typing so many articles about pitchers undergoing Tommy John surgery.
And at this rate, somebody who throws the first pitch of a ballgame will get it too at some point.
Man , whats up with all this arm injury stuff, hard to believe that these guys can’t throw 200 Inns with incurring some kind of Arm Injury, how did the Old timers do it, their Trainers and Mechanics where not any better.
They didn’t. Guys blew arms out, and the fairly non existent media wasn’t there to report it. Also, it’s possibly due to so many now throwing with high velocity and G forces
There is a documentary out called “Fastball” that will disparage some of the myth that “old timers didn’t though hard and also prove that Ryan, not Chapman, had the fastest known pitch ever. When Ryan was clocked at 100.9 during the first televised game to use a radar gun his pitch was clocked as it crossed the plate. Chapman’s (105.1 mph) was clocked under the “new” standards…50 feet from the plate. Using the same measurement and math/physics Ryan’s pitch was 108.5 and Bob Feller’s pitch erroneously measured heat (98.6) in the late 40’s was 107.6. It also shows that Walter Johnson was throwing in the mid 90’s. Can’t wait to see the flick.
I’m in general agreement. I’m just referring to the general desire by youth sports and professional baseball to push for hard max effort throwing. A guy like Walter Johnson had a fastball that Ty Cobb claimed was the fastest…but he didn’t ride it the way we see now. Yeah…I’m not really referring to outliers like a Chapman…just the general trend.
There used to be two guns used…the Juggs was 5 under I believe..you just adjusted the reading
Pitchers have always suffered arm injuries and yes it did used to be common for a TOR guy like Steve Carlton to toss 250+ innings per season (he threw 346.1 innings in 1972). The biggest difference between then and now… Those guys grew up playing in Little League or sandlot games, maybe American Legion ball, high school baseball and maybe some other type of league during the summer. Now you have many kids playing on several teams simultaneously, you have many kids playing baseball year-round in some of the warmer clients, you have some parents hiring personal coaches to train their kid year-round and eventually the total number catches up to them. Another factor for some, IMO, is excessive weight training. Ligaments do not grow at the same rate as muscle. If too much muscle is added to quickly the ligaments cannot catch up and it causes additional strain. That’s why PED users (and no I’m not saying that this or the other recent TJS were users) often suffer ligament damage.
At some point, when I’m very bored..lol, I am going to go through the list of all of the MLB TJS since 2000 (including the 18 this year) just to see where they grew up and to see if there’s a higher number from warm weather, year-round baseball areas, like California and Texas. Unfortunately I will never be able to find out which guys played in year-round leagues etc for certain but I wish someone could.
That’s a tough break for Kingham. I wish him a speedy recovery.
As for the Pirates, I’m wondering if Adrian Sampson could be useful down the stretch. He’s flown under the radar over the years, and has an above average fastball.