Phillies right-hander Mark Appel underwent surgery to remove a bone spur from his right elbow and will miss the remainder of the 2016 season, according to Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Appel had already been on the minor league disabled list due to a strain in his right shoulder, but Gelb writes that he incurred the elbow injury that necessitated today’s operation when he began throwing to work his way back from that shoulder issue. The injury comes with a recovery timeline of four to six months.
The Phillies picked up Appel as part of a five-player package from the Astros that sent Ken Giles and Jonathan Arauz to Houston. Appel joined the Phillies alongside Vincent Velasquez, Brett Oberholtzer, Thomas Eshelman and Harold Arauz in that seven-player swap. The former No. 1 overall pick began the season quite well, pitching to a 1.64 ERA through the month of April and posting a solid 19-to-7 K/BB ratio through those 22 innings. However, Appel’s production took declined rapidly beginning in May, and he hasn’t pitched since he surrendered four runs in just two-thirds of an inning on the 22nd of that month. Overall, he’ll finish the season with a 4.46 ERA, 8.0 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 through the 38 1/3 innings he was able to throw before falling to injury.
Appel hasn’t lived up to the expectations that come with a No. 1 overall pick, but he’s still just 24 years of age (25 next month) and has a fair amount of experience at the Triple-A level under his belt. While Philadelphia will probably monitor his innings in 2017 due to this season’s injury-driven light workload, it’s plausible that he could factor into the Phillies’ plans as soon as next season. Appel, along with Velasquez, Eshelman, Jerad Eickhoff, Zach Eflin, Jake Thompson, Ben Lively, and Nick Pivetta represent a large staple of rotation options that the Phillies have acquired in trades over the past two years (in addition, of course, to right-hander Aaron Nola, who was selected seventh overall in the 2014 draft) as the team stocks up for a hopefully sustainable run of success. Appel currently ranks fourth among Phillies prospects, per MLB.com’s Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo. He entered the season rated third among Phillies prospects on the rankings of ESPN’s Keith Law and seventh among Philadelphia farmhands in the eyes of Baseball America.
Wow. Bad luck just keeps coming.
I’ve started to feel like the Philles didn’t get a package for Giles. Just feels like a lot of subpar players and guys with injury concerns.
That was always the feeling. They got five guys, 3 who hoped to be back of the rotation types, then VV who has a long injury history, and Appel, who’s Mark Appel.
All upside, little certainty. Hard to love, but not hard to like the return for Giles. But then again, if VV turns into a middle of the rotation guy, Eshelman into a backend guy and 1 of the other 3 into a middle reliever, can we really complain?
No we can’t at all. I just think Giles wasn’t a guy who had to be traded. It’s kinda like Tehran on the Braves, still young enough to go through a rebuild but kind of a veteran, enough team control, and a great player to have.
As a Braves fan, I hated the trade, which means I thought it was pretty nice for the Phillies. VV looked sharp this year, and if he gets healthy, he should only improve. Appel has the potential to essentially replace Giles as an effective closer or set up man if he maintains his health and makes some adjustments. I realize that the trade was based on a lot of potential and not much of a track record, but you can’t blame Klentak for going for it. If the Braves could get a similar haul for Viz, I’d take it.
Remember after one month, and everyone was clamoring about what a fleecing this was? Trades take time to evaluate who really benefited from the trade. I think the Phillies did very well for themselves at the time they made it. They traded a closer (who may have peaked at his value, time will tell) and got several top prospects from an organization with a deep farm system. Let’s see how it turns out, but imagine if Giles was struggling as much as he is this year and still with the Phillies? Their fans would be all up in arms that they didn’t trade Giles while he was coming off a very strong season.
VV will be a #1 if he can stay healthy
I said at the time of the trade that it’s likely that everyone the Phillies got in that trade would be a bust except Velasquez, but I love that trade for the Phillies because of him.
Not signing was the best thing Appel could’ve done for the Pirates (they got Meadows with the comp pick).
I was just about to post the same thing… Great minds!!!
Ha ha from the Pirates organization.
Wow. Maybe the guy should just start over again and learn to be a left handed pitcher. This is a joke, in case someone takes me serious.
Appel has to be off the top 100 prospects list after this set-back. He was already falling this has to be the final nail.
Hate to see anyone get hurt but this guy has been way overrated in my opinion. What has he done?? Did he throw 100 with a nasty breaking pitch?? PR move of the decade by his advisors. This is guy has always been too big of a projection to ever warrant being a top 10 pick.
high 90s fastball with a + slider has always been why he was rated high, never developed much of another pitch still can be a solid bullpen guy as people have said.
You can throw it hard and make it break but if you can’t locate those two factors don’t equate.
Control was never a problem until the injuries started
So glad Houston took him #1, Bryant was #2 and he’s an MVP candidate
Still not nearly as impressive as getting the best player in baseball at #25. Everyone is a draft expert in hindsight though.
That’s true but the two I mentioned were going 1/2 that year. The Cubs lucked out.
This guy also had a lot of substance at Stanford far from just hype not sure why you dislike him so much. Hes far from as overrated as some guys are.
Remember this name Jonathan Arauz. could be a steal for the Astros