March 15: DeSclafani will explore the possibility of undergoing platelet-rich plasma and stem cell injections in an effort to accelerate his timetable, tweets Buchanan.
March 13: Reds righty Anthony DeSclafani has been diagnosed with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm, president of baseball operations Dick Williams told reporters including Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer. For now, he’ll be shut down for a month before being reevaluated.
It’s obviously good news that DeSclafani isn’t set for Tommy John surgery despite suffering an injury to his UCL. There are, after all, several new techniques being utilized to forestall a surgical option or limit the damage if a procedure is performed. And teammate Michael Lorenzen was able to avoid a TJ procedure last year with a “very similar” injury, per team doctor Timothy Kremcheck (via Buchanan, on Twitter).
Clearly, though, the club will still need to chart a cautious course to avoid greater damage to DeSclafani’s UCL. Steering clear of a future TJ procedure will no doubt be a top priority in determining his rehab approach and timeline. While it doesn’t seem to be on the table presently, avoiding the legendary procedure — with its year-plus rehab timeline — will require care.
What that means in the immediate future is that the Reds likely won’t welcome DeSclafani back to the MLB rotation for quite some time. Lorenzen, whose injury occurred in the middle of March last year, did not make it up to the majors until June 24th. In his case, a bout of mono intervened to extend the recovery timeline, so DeSclafani can reasonably expect to make it back sooner — though he will also need a lengthier ramp-up since he’ll return to the rotation.
For Cincinnati, it obviously stings to lose the presumptive staff ace for a decent chunk of the upcoming season. While there’s little chance the organization would’ve been competitive, DeSclafani certainly could’ve become a highly appealing mid-season trade chip; while that’s still possible, it’s perhaps less likely — and there’ll surely be at least a bit of an injury discount to his value given his recent health questions. Additionally, losing this much time after an injury-shortened 2016 season could mean that DeSclafani will face innings limitations in 2018.
The missing innings will also tell in arbitration, which DeSclafani will qualify for next fall. Even if he continues his excellent 2016 work — 3.28 ERA with 7.7 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 — upon his return, his arb earnings will be held down by the limits on the number of frames he’ll be able to accumulate.
Thoughts and prayers
Good post! The first inclination is to think about how much worse the Reds will be without him. I’m happy to see the first post as one of unselfish and thoughtful positives.
Please people save your thoughts and prayers for the Rockies pitcher with recurring cancer!!!
Feel sorry for DeSclafini. He has so much potential. Even if he doesn’t have TJ, 2017 is going to be a tough season for him. A month until he is reevaluated and then if he is healthy, at least a couple of months until he is ready to pitch for the Reds again.
That’s a shame. Hopefully he won’t need surgery. Best wishes
The reds medical staff are butchers. They’ll delay and he’ll lose two years instead of one
Preemptive Tommy John surgery is the way to go! Knock him out for a year when he might be fine in a couple of months…
Lorenzen is a promising example as far as avoiding surgery, but pretty irrelevant as far as setting a timeline. His mono seemingly kept him out longer than his elbow, or at least when they were talking about starting up his throwing program it was delayed long term due to his illness.
It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, modern medical developments can do for him. Placelet injections? Primary repair? Wait it out and hope it heals, without requiring TJ surgery?
Make Iglesias a starter again
They won’t, due to Iglesias’ lingering shoulder concerns and a plethora of other candidates. Robert Stephenson, Cody Reed, Amir Garrett, Sal Romano, and Rookie Davis give them lots of young rotation options who are highly rated, have pitched well this spring, or both.
I think Lorenzen is a more likely candidate than Iglesias to return to the rotation, but even his chances seem pretty slim. They wouldn’t know what to expect from Lorenzen, which is the same argument against all the other young candidates.
Do the Tommy John now! He is gone for half the season and will still have the UCL
I think it’s time to face the possibility that there will be NO pitchers available (league-wide) to begin the season.