Rangers right-hander Clayton Blackburn will undergo Tommy John surgery, as MLB.com’s TR Sullivan was among those to report on Twitter. The news comes after Blackburn dealt with elbow issues all spring long.
Blackburn, who was acquired this time last year from the Giants, was once a highly regarded prospect but has yet to earn his first MLB call-up. That may well have come in the current season, but the 25-year-old will instead spend the year rehabbing.
A former 16th-round draft pick, Blackburn has spent most of the past three seasons at the highest level of the minors. In his 355 1/3 innings at Triple-A, he owns a 4.00 ERA with 7.1 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9.
Blackburn still has an option year remaining and won’t burn it in 2018. He is already on the 60-day DL, so there are no immediate 40-man ramifications. But it remains to be seen whether the Rangers will be able to to carry him through next offseason, when there will inevitably be a variety of roster pressures to account for.
Tommy John epidemic
It’s because every player is trying to throw as hard as they possible can
But Blackburn is more of a softballer, so………
Doesn’t mean he wasn’t trying to throw as hard as he can
Doesn’t mean he was either…..have you ever watched him pitch?
Nope never heard of him before
I remember when Gary Brown, nick noonen, Blackburn, ray black, Mejia, and Kyle crick were the giants future stars. Everyone thought they were going to be really successful.
Lmao that’s so depressing
Well Ray Black is back in AA, and has struck out 4 of the 5 hitters he’s faced, giving up no baserunners yet. He looks good. Seems to have dialed back his velocity a touch for command’s sake or he might of just lost some but health is what has held him back, not lack of talent……he’ll be interesting to follow.
Crick was a piece that helped bring in Cutch, so I’ll take that. Mejia brought Nunez who played ok for the G’s then brought in two of the better pitching prospects that the Giants now possess, I’ll take that as well.
The others are clearly poor players but I really don’t know any Giants fans that follow the minors that thought guys like Blackburn, Noonen, or Brown were going to sustain above replacement level play in the MLB
Lol Gary Brown was the giants top prospect in 2011 he broke the record of most hits in a season in the league and he played a mean center field. Nick noonen was also a high regarded prospect was a top 70. Was thought to have a great defensive skills and had the potential of decent power and .300 batting average. Kyle crick used to be a top 20 prospect in mlb. He had a great fastball and was predicted to be like matt Cain. But he struggled in 2016 and was moved to a relief job. Point is our top prospects never lives up to their hype
Every team has them.
Jeff just for the purpose of accuracy, Blackburn was called up to the Giants in May of ’16, he just never got into a game the 4 days or so he was up
This whole generation of pitchers are just brittle. Probably too many hormones in their milk growing up or something.
OK I know I’m not the only one who thought “Kershaw” when the name Clayton popped up on screen