Prized Yankees prospect James Kaprielian is slated to undergo Tommy John surgery next week, per a club announcement. While the news is obviously a disappointment, it was perhaps the anticipated outcome at this stage.
Kaprielian, who was taken 16th overall in the 2015 draft, had already missed time with elbow issues early in his career. The former UCLA righty was limited to just 56 frames (including a fall league placement) in his first two seasons as a pro. When he experienced elbow discomfort again this spring, it was determined that the surgery was required.
There had been at least some hope that Kaprielian could contribute to the Yanks as soon as this year. Despite his limited action over the past two seasons, he impressed when he was on the hill, compiling an overall 2.89 ERA with 10.0 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 since joining the organization.
Instead, Kaprielian will require a layoff that will likely extend into the beginning of the 2018 season. Though the organization will hope that he’ll progress as a pitcher even as he recovers, that extended delay is hardly a positive development. And while Kaprielian won’t be earning MLB service time during his layoff, his future now faces added uncertainty — though it still retains plenty of promise.
Entering the 2017 season, Kaprielian drew strong ratings from most major prospect analysts. Baseball America ranked him fifth in the Yankees organization, while MLB.com placed him just one spot lower on its list. Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs, who rated Kaprielian fourth among the club’s prospects, wrote that the youngster has an arsenal “approaching [that of] a top-of-the-rotation arm,” while noting that his ability to maintain his velocity and stay healthy remained major points in question.
(awaits Eck to say this sucks for the future HOFer)
But man, it does suck. Was hoping to see him as a late September call up. Guess that will have to wait til September 2018.
Or, you know, never, because A) he’s a mere prospect and B) he’s having major surgery that does not have a 100% recovery rate.
“B) he’s having major surgery that does not have a 100% recovery rate.”
And this is one of several reasons why people, including surgeons like Dr. Andrews, say Tanaka SHOULDN’T have TJS right now, even though in the future at some point he may need it, whether it be later this year or not for another 5 years.
See what happens when you “LMAO Rich Hill is on the DL already”?
Never revel in someone else’s injuries. Karma is Def a b….
Perhaps you can explain Eck where on here I wrote “LMAO Rich Hill is on the DL already”?
mlbtraderumors.com/2017/04/dodgers-rich-hill-blist…
It wasn’t here. You got called out on it by another commenter too. You know I’m not making this up.
If you’re talking about on RAB , then I laughed at several of my fellow Yankee fans there who wanted Rich Hill. I wasn’t laughing at Rich Hill being injured.
Shouldn’t you be on Over The Monster instead of RAB? Or do you just go to stalk my comments there or something?
i.imgur.com/jJbOF95.jpg
So…. you’re not denying it?
Show the full thing next time Stalker.
imgur.com/dEPXafZ
Sure wish there was a way I can block you on here. At least I’ve now removed my random followers (one of which was likely you under a random name) and made Disqus profile private 🙂
Me stalker? Dude…. scroll up. YOU put my name up there.
I put your name up there because you’re a common commentator on This site who commonly likes to troll Yankee fans.
You found a week old comment from me on Another blog with Disqus containing hundreds and hundreds of other comments and decided to find a single one and screenshot it and upload it on Imgur, to prove a stupid and unrelated point to this story.
If that’s not stalking, what do you call it?
So let me get this straight. Some dope on the internet says “LMAO Rich Hill is on the DL already” and karma punishes… James Kapriellan?
I think we’re losing sight over who’s actually HURT by this. Spoiler alert: It’s not a bunch of no-life internet trolls who talk about baseball. It’s the guy who needs surgery and loses a year of his career.
GoAwayRod..you definitely are a voice of reason. It sucks Kap has to get TJ but it’s not like he was gonna be up this year anyway.
GoAwayRod, Yankee fans must hate when you take too much sense, because of your username lol
Sep 2018 might even be a stretch.
2019 is much more likely, and even then I would hesitate to say early 2019.. 2018 is going to be a rehab year, also dude hasn’t pitched above A ball. He needs innings in the minors.
NY has just had bad, bad, bad luck with 1st round picks last cpl decades. Not just injury, but weird other reasons, like Cole all of a sudden deciding not to sign. More than a lot of others IMO and not their fault either. real shame.
Cole wanted to go to college. He comes from a family that wasn’t desperate for the money, and wanted the college experience. I believe Cole was taken 30th and it was seen at the time as a grab because he wasn’t expected to sign –
not for the Yankees or anyone. Yankees took a roll of the dice on a very high end arm because of where they picked. I don’t even think a formal offer was made to him.
This past year they took Rutherford (again, concerns about signing him) but they were able to make it work.
Dante Bichette Jr, Slade Heathcott…. those were very curious picks and generally panned.
“Prized” usually does not mean “15 teams did not want him”. It usually means a signing that a team beat the field for.
But yeah, east coast bias etc I get it, sigh.
Looking at his stats it seems he’s been really impressive, especially for being younger than all his competition
Are we looking at the same player? He’s 23 and has 29 innings in pro ball under his belt, he’s literally nothing yet and definitely not younger than his comp.
What about all those teams that passed over mike trout or kershaw? Your “15 teams did not want him” statement is just stupid. Especially with how much of a crapshoot the MLB draft is.
Oh great, a “whatabouter”.
Do you have any semblance of reading comprehension, or do you just see random words and take them and twist them to mean totally different things?
I literally said “prized” was the wrong word to use here, I never mentioned Trout or Kershaw because this article did not say “Prized prospect Mike Trout.”
My god, go to school already – how do you know how to post on the internet but not know how to read???
Mike Trout says “hi”.
Where is Mike Trout in this article that claims a “prized prospect”??
Waiting….
Oh yeah, you do not know how to read. Great. Go back to school and at least get back to a 5th grade reading comprehension and also learn how straw man arguments are entirely worthless.
Please leave me out of this. Thanks.
Hater^
I dont think Eck knows how karma works.
If MB made fun of hill karma would hurt MB….not a yankees pitcher in retaliation.
Also, you can take the comment 1 of 3 ways. MB was making fun of hills injury or MB was making light of hills injury history catching up with him, it wasnt like hill being injured was going to shock the world.
“If MB made fun of hill karma would hurt MB….not a yankees pitcher in retaliation.”
Exactly.
Kind of shocked MB. You generally don’t get involved in these peeing matches with trolls. All these years have seen your posts here, don’t remember you engaging in one with obvious ones before..
He became a top prospect because he started throwing 95-98 out of no where. Throwing 95-98 lead to TJ surgery. I’m going to go ahead and assume hes not gonna be a top prospect for very much longer. Hes a nice piece, but hes gonna be 24 when he reaches 30 professional innings
Still hasn’t thrown above A+ either.
This is probably the meanest, classless and vicious thread I’ve ever seen on this website. And these comments are (supposedly) moderated. If I wanted to wander into the ESPN or Fox News comments section I would. I think we are better than this, folks.
This is still the better iteration of the comments section than when everything was being overly moderated. I once was banned for posting a single word: “No.” (I believe back when this site used disqus)
There”s still Justus Sheffield who could be up sometime next year. I’m also looking forward to seeing what Montgomery could do.
This injury for the kid does suck. He seems like a gamer, so I believe he’ll be 100% heading into 2019 with a shot for a rotation spot. They still have options before then. Sheffield, Chance Adams, Domingo Acevedo, Tate & Abreu going forward, plus Montgomery & Severino looking good as of late. We just need some consistency from these kids, which I think they are more than capable of..