Padres right-hander Erik Johnson underwent Tommy John surgery today, reports Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune (Twitter link). The 26-year-old was acquired by San Diego alongside Fernando Tatis Jr. in the trade that sent James Shields to the White Sox. He’ll miss the entire 2017 season as he recovers from the operation.
Johnson pitched just 19 2/3 innings with the Friars following the trade, surrendering 20 earned runs on 32 hits and and five walks with 10 strikeouts. The 2011 second-round pick once rated as one of the Top 100 prospects in the game according to Baseball America, MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus but has seen his stock dip precipitously over the past three seasons since debuting in 2014. Johnson has a 5.28 earned run average in 117 2/3 innings between the ChiSox and the Padres, and he’s averaged 6.7 K/9 while allowing 4.1 BB/9 and recording a 38.6 percent ground-ball rate.
While Johnson certainly wasn’t going to be penciled into the 2017 rotation in San Diego, news of his Tommy John surgery further depletes a Padres depth chart that is lacking in the way of quality pitching at the upper levels of the minor leagues. Opening Day proved to be the only appearance of the season for Tyson Ross, who is now weighing shoulder surgery. The team’s other internal options for next year’s rotation include Christian Friedrich, Luis Perdomo and Paul Clemens. Right-hander Edwin Jackson and lefty Clayton Richard finished out the season in the Padres’ rotation, but each veteran is eligible for free agency this winter.
Suffice it to say, pitching figures to be a prime target for the Padres’ front office, even if the team doesn’t have an eye on contending next season. Simply adding depth in the form of starters that can take the ball every fifth day will be paramount, and it seems logical to expect the Padres to target pitching help in any trade talks that might arise over the duration of the offseason.
Bye Felicia
Man, this guy was bad in his short time pitching.
I still cannot for the life of me figure out what the Padres were doing in the 2014-15 offseason.
Trying to win?? Doing something that had never been done before by a Padres ownership group, something that most fans cried about every year, about the “cheap” Padres never spending or bringing in real MLB talent, well, they went out and got all them fancy “super stars”, invested on payroll, and look where it all ended.
Many positives however, did come out of such trading/spending spree, it allow Preller to clean an overrated farm system, and restock with real legitimate prospects, now there’s unprecedented potential within the Padres minor league system.
It also showed the intentions of the new ownership, they said they wanted to bring a winner to San Diego and they’ve been trying ever since, in a short span, the Padres have seen different styles of play at work, this latest one appears to be the correct one, hopefully, the plan stays in place and the rookies develop to their suggested potential.
Just trade for James shields again he may give up 8 runs a game but at least he pitched every fifth day and won’t require TJ like every other Padre.
Pitching figures to be a prime target for the Padres front office in a year where we have a historically poor FA pitching market. May as well just resign Richard cause there isn’t much that is any better on the FA market.
Somehow, I think Padres’ elbow ligaments are getting the same treatment as Chargers’ knee ligaments. Time to dumpster dive on pitching and hope they are the next Fernando Rodney
Oh man it’s tough to be a San Diego sports fan right now. The Padres are a mess, although their future looks bright. And you could make the argument that the Chargers could be 4-0 right now, but they somehow managed to only win 1