Angels righty Garrett Richards has elected not to undergo Tommy John surgery at this time, MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez reports (Twitter links). He’ll receive a stem-cell therapy treatment on his elbow, take a six week hiatus, and attempt to rehab his injured right elbow.
That’s promising news for the Halos, who desperately need their staff ace back in action. It’s not yet clear what kind of timetable might be hoped for, and there remains a good bit of uncertainty in how quickly Richards can return to the hill and work his way back to the majors.
Of course, there’s also likely some risk entailed. Richards had been said to be headed toward a UCL replacement after being diagnosed with a fairly significant tear. If he ultimately does require surgery, then his prospective return could be delayed rather substantially by waiting. But as Gonzalez notes, it is possible that he’d have missed all or most of 2017 regardless, depending upon the speed of his recovery.
Richards, 27, was off to an excellent beginning to the 2016 campaign after taking a step back last year. He had thrown 34 2/3 innings of 2.34 ERA ball, with 8.8 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9. That performance was more reminiscent of Richards’s breakout 2014, and he was clearly the best-performing arm in an underwhelming and injury-riddled Angels rotation.
Los Angeles owes Richards $6.425MM this year in his second of four seasons of arbitration eligibility. He’ll likely be in line for at least some increase over that amount heading into 2017, and can still earn more if he’s able to return to the mound. Of course, if he ultimately has the TJ procedure, then the club will face a tough decision as to whether to tender him a contract for 2017, all just to pay another large salary for his final season of eligibility in 2018.
So Richards is out all of 2017?
Basically
Hence trade trout talk.
I’m seeing a few people say that he could be back in 6 weeks if all goes perfect. Man wouldn’t that be a great turn of events
He’ll be shutdown for 6 weeks. He won’t be back for probably another 2-3 months.
Still unclear, but my sense was more that he’d take a six-week layoff and work back from there. Regardless, seems to be pretty dependent upon how the treatment takes and how he’s feeling, and he’ll need a full minor league ramp-up as well.
I know it’s unlikely but if he came back in 6 weeks that would be such good news
He’s being shut down for 6 weeks. That means no baseball, at all. So they’ll evaluate him at that point. If things are looking better, he’ll begin a throwing program. Best case scenario would be about 10 weeks until he returns. Worst case is they try rehab for 8+ weeks and he ends up needing surgery.
How do you figure? He’s doing this instead of the surgery, which would have made him miss all of 2017.
Surgery is about a year meaning he could be back for 2nd half of next year. There is probably a 50/50 chance he needs surgery after this anyway in which case he will 100% miss all of next year.
I disagree, at least about the 50/50. Look at Tanaka for the Yankees
Bold move Cotton, let’s see if it pays off.
Rather him get the surgery now. Don’t waste your prime years in and out of the DL
Should just get the surgery… He’ll end up just being out longer now. Just watch
If he was likely to be out all of 17 anyway how does this hurt? Worth a shot and doesn’t really set his timetable back
It could work out fine, it could place undue stress on a verifiably fragile ligament and create more serious, long term issues. Why risk it in a year that the owner refused to add payroll because he’s waiting for contracts to expire after this season. Seems like ownership and front office were letting this season play out for better or worse anyway and it took a turn for the worse, so be it, but why jeopardize one of your top starters’ pitching elbow for half a season of presumably non-playoff baseball?
2014 rangers all over again