The Angels announced today that righty J.C. Ramirez has been diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament, as MLB.com’s Maria Guardado was among those to report (Twitter link). His doctors have recommended that he undergo Tommy John surgery.
After some struggles with forearm tightness to open the year, following an offseason of stem-cell treatment for a partial UCL tear, this news isn’t exactly shocking. Still, it’s a disappointing development for a player who had been such a bright spot in 2017.
Ramirez, 29, had found little success in the majors until he threw well in a relief role down the stretch for the Angels in 2016. Still, nothing jumped off the page to foretell future success, with the exception of a healthy 54.9% groundball rate on the season.
Then came a 2017 campaign in which an injury-plagued Halos’ staff was desperate for innings. Ramirez ended up making 24 starts and providing 147 1/3 frames of 4.15 ERA ball. That’s hardly ace-level stuff, and the peripherals (6.4 K/9, 3.0 BB/9, 51.4% GB, 1.28 HR/9) did not exactly excite, but Ramirez certainly provided more than anyone had cause to expect.
While the elbow troubles at season’s end created some obvious cause for trepidation, the Angels decided it was worth the risk to keep Ramirez around. The club tendered the Super-Two-eligible hurler an arb contract and ended up paying him $1.9MM.
If Ramirez ends up going under the knife for a full UCL replacement, he likely won’t be ready to pitch competitively until this time next year (at the soonest). He would likely earn at an identical rate of pay if the team chooses to tender him a contract once again this coming fall.
Nolan Ryan never had that surgery, even though his UCL was torn for over half his 20 plus years pitching
How many other pitchers have put a batter in a headlock during a fight though?
None exactly
Nolan Ryan was an outlier among outliers though. Most guys don’t throw 100, especially then, and most guys don’t pitch until they’re 45 and most guys don’t make the Hall of Fame. Don’t quite get to compare anyone to Ryan. He was one of the most unique players in history.
(And by the way, Ryan pitched 7 more seasons after his UCL was torn, not “half his career”)
Well thanks for clarifying Mr Ryan’s no1 fan
So sick of people using Nolan Ryan as an example (and he’s ALWAYS the go-to example), Koufax was better but guess what happened to him? These old school dorks think that no players ever got hurt or had career ending injuries when there were literally dozens of them in every single decade. Maybe more now, but the lies that they were “rare” back then need to go.
Nolan Ryan will never EVER happen again – stop bringing him up in injury threads NOW.
Hahahalololol. Silly silly
They also like to talk about shorter rotations. If you look at team pages all throughout history, you get the same thing you get in the modern game. Lots more arms making around 25 starts and 150-180 innings than those 350 inning work horses. For the same reasons we have them today.
Nolan Ryan is a freak of nature, and should never be used as a standard of comparison.
There will probably be never another one like him. I wish I was old enough, to watch him 🙁
Ryan actually pitched 7 years after partially tearing his UCL, not “half his career”
I mean still, 7 years isn’t a short amount of time in baseball.
Ervin Santana has pitched as long with a partial tear in his UCL
Adam Wainwright pitches for many years with a partial tear as well
I saw Ryan pitch in the old Astrodome for Houston . He plunked Dave Winfield
and then Winfield charged the mound
and they went at it. Good times!
R.A. Dickey was born without a UCL !
And awaaaaay we go…!
Bummer
He looked very off in his two starts. Maybe some guys just aren’t meant to throw a ton of innings. In track guys go different distances but get hurt if they change events.
At least if it happens this early in the year he might be back for part of 2019.
Ricky Nolasco still out there. Brett Obertholzer also
There’s better guys than that. John Lackey, Matt Garza, Scott Feldman
Garza is garbage. At least Nolasco can give a team 2 good starts out of 5. Garza a team would be lucky to get 2 good starts a season.
Very much disagree about Nolasco. He is dreadful.
He has some good starts every now and then. He had 3 I can name off of the top of my head from last season. The shutout against the Mariners in July, when he faced the Dodgers, and when he faced the Nationals.
Fair enough. Similar stats last year, though. Very similar.
The difference between them is that Garza is consistently below average, and Nolasco swings between good, and completely terrible.
Feldman seems like the best choice to me. Lackey probably won’t come cheap if you can talk him out of retirement. The halos will probably end up swinging a deal for a starter at some point anyway. They have some prospects now and that rotation could use another top-middle rotation arm.
Crazy idea…Royals have Kennedy or Hammel, neither great but have exhibited strong track records of health and Kennedy is off to a nice start this season. Royals need to shed some money and the Halos could have them for minimal prospect cost. Luxury tax implications is the only obstacle but the teams seem like a fit.
I think angels will just be fine we got the 2nd best G.M. Going and he will make some deals.The team is strong and it will get better so shut the f up if you don’t know what your talking about!!! This team is for real just need more pitching.
I’m sure Mike Pelfrey would listen.
What a surprise another TJ!
I love listening to george brett and goose gossage talk about what pansies these players have become. The best quote is “ we didnt have obliques back then”.
how nice it must be to call grown athletes “pansies” from behind your phone screen when you couldn’t play at even rookie level for a week.
He’s not calling them pansies. He’s saying that George Brett and goose gossage are calling them pansies
George Brett and Gossage didn’t do it behind the phone they call them that on TV
And they say the American education system is going downhill…
Being tough and have the skill to play baseball aren’t traits that can compared, so your weird comeback makes no sense.
Nor does your grammar.
Yeah that one hurt a bit
Just hemeriods
I hate listening to moron jocks act like their experience is the only one that happened.
Actor Kurt Russell was so sick at baseball, but he tore his shoulder up and never made it out of the minors – why don’t you chuds ask HIM how he feels about injuries??? Nope, its always “Nolan Ryan never got hurt” “George Brett never had any serious injuries and thinks 2018 baseball has the exact same level of athleticism in it as it did in 1979.” – god, yall are SO obnoxious.
Um yall is a redneck
“Yall” (short for “you all”) is widely used all over America.
You aren’t very bright are you?
Thanks
Signed Cal Ripken Jr.
I love how you call others out on posts and then make a moronic one like this.
Um yall is the greatest ever redneck
I love how mad you are that I’m right.
Lol angels fans still think they got a shot at the Red Sox and twins
Well eventually the Roid Sox have to play a good team. They won’t be playing Miami and Tampa Bay all season. The Angels biggest concern is closer.
Good call. Never noticed that.
Agreed, when 100% of your schedule so far, has been the Florida teams. Red Sox’s first real test comes tomorrow: Yankees, while struggling, losing to the O’s in 14 and 12 inning marathons, twice, in the last three days— will be their toughest opponent.
Red Sox are 8-1, but is this the softest 9 games to begin the season, in MLB history? Can’t wait to find out, if 8-1 is real or fluke. They get the 5-5 Yankees, tomorrow.
They are better than the twins imo
Lol
I’ve said going in the Twins have the inside edge on a Wild Card simply because the AL Central has two outright tanking teams (Detroit, Chicago) and one simply not good one (KC).
The Roid Sux are likely a bit better of a team top to bottom than my Halos, so the edge there will likely be determined by the depth of the divisions. Texas and Oakland could be pretty bad, but so could Baltimore and Tampa Bay.
The Angels are are interesting case, but ultimately, they are not a good team. They have an excellent top 20, but the very worst 20-40. You are only as good as your 25th man and the Angels have absolutely zero depth, which we are seeing even in the early on, I shudder to think who will be on the 25 man in July.
Oakland will be good once they get rid of Melvin, who is just phoning it in every game now. He didn’t even challenge a contested 27th out! lol, whyyyy?? (he’s really bad at his job, that’s why).
Not shocked to see a dodgers fan talk trash on the Angels
This just isn’t true
For the LAST TIME – this is a joke on the band called Bachmann-Turner Overdrive. I am NOT a Dodgers fan, I’m not a idiot homer fanboy, period. I like all teams.
Angels have the worst depth in MLB and that’s a fact. If they kept everyone 100% healthy they’d be contenders but that’s already impossible to do as half their rotation is dust already. I see them topping out at 82-84 wins at most.
Sure, Trout and Ohtani are awesome, but the other 23? Nope. Twins have more depth and a superior bullpen and rotation, Angels aren’t even close to them, and Boston? lol, the Angels are like a AAA team compared to them.
Umm they have plenty of depth. No team has the depth to counter the amount of starting pitching injuries the Angels have endured over the last 5 years. Your comment sounds a bit biased, like you don’t want them to have the depth or to contend.
I hate the way they are run, yes.
Dodgers fan trashing the Angels ? I couldn’t have imagined that
An idiot being stupid in the comments? Never saw that one coming either.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachman%E2%80%93Turner_Overd…
Have you never taken care of business before?
Another poor informed Dodgers fan. Who would have guessed.
Because we lost JC Ramirez? Right…
I reject the “freak of nature” argument so many apply to people like Nolan Ryan. It’s simply mechanics. Ramirez employed an exaggerated version of the “Tommy John twist” in his delivery, like so many pitchers do nowadays. Matt Harvey is perhaps the most egregious, big name example. I’d recommend everyone to scout out the work of Chris o’leary. Controversial and I don’t agree with all of his conclusions, but he’s undeniably on to something that others are not.
Is that the guy who thinks any pitcher who at some point in his delivery, has the ball pointing at second base, ends up with TJ? Interesting theory and there’s quite a few examples out there.
Yeah, that’s him. And look, I don’t buy everything he has to say, but his track record of injury prediction is kind of nuts, as is his record of predicting guys who will have long, healthy careers. From the very start, he framed Justin Verlander as the ultimate mechanical pitcher, and, true to form, the guy has never gone down with serious arm injuries, continues to display premium velocity, and is still successful into his mid thirties. O’leary’s observations go far beyond the one problem you referenced, however, and he’s good about showing examples where other factors mitigate the danger of such things. It’s a real good study for anyone interested in the epidemic of arm injuries.
There are also more than a few whispers that ryan had a little “help” along the way; his career was pre-testing.
Is that also the guy Al Leiter was going over clips of pitchers with serious elbow problems and their mechanics on MLB Network last year? If it is, I’ll point out how every pitcher they analyzed had the same mechanical flaw: awkward arm angles upon planting their front foot, going into their delivery. Their forearms were either about level with their elbow or below. The forearm should be upright at about a 90 degree angle when beginning the push off.
Such a bummer this will be Ohtani’s fate too. Mixing 68 mph with 102 mph + being on the Angels, who destroy pitchers arms worse than any other team = sad MLB
He keeps his arm at a dangerously low point below his shoulder during his foot plant. This usually spells elbow/shoulder trouble in the future. Still exciting as hell to watch for now though. And, who knows, you can’t predict everything.
Agreed with all of that and thank you for actually posting something that isnt some pissyy crybaby homer troll post. Need more people like you round here….
Lol
Such a bummer when the Dodgers start 3-6. You just hate to see it.
I don’t really care because i’m NOT A DODGERS FAN YOU DOLT.
Screen names, puns, have you ever heard of them?
Angels fans are the biggest idiots ever.
To be a dodger fan you have to be a idiot.Let’s see if the dodgers even sniff the playoffs this year let alone the world series!!! The halos are taking it all pitching or no pitching .
justin-turner overdrive….Changing speeds/pitches isn’t a problem, any more than you claim last week that Puk blew his elbow learning a 2 -seamer. What will you say next week? The mound, the rosin?
The problem starts as a youth and is cumulative. too many innings, throwing year round, throwing with max effort all the time. It’s that simple.
You are just terribly terribly wrong and it’s ridiculous. Read srechter’s posts above. I am right you are wrong the end.
Puk also points the ball at second base….
Dr Jobe was wrong, Dr. Andrews too…and John Hopkins, every orthopedic surgeon is wrong because one guy says so. I will take their years of expertise over anyone. You haven’t been right about one thing yet. All you do is insult and blabber about things you have no knowledge of.
*Johns Hopkins Medical
Saw this coming. Bad news obviously, and i’m expecting some bad news on shoemaker to so not a great start.
To many ucl tears a top to bottom review should take place. Not an issue 3 to 5 years ago now it’s one or two a year. Someone is burning up arms.
Overuse in youth ball, especially travel ball. Being taught poor mechanics for the sake of having high velocity since you can’t even get drafted these days unless you throw 95. It’s years of overuse with bad mechanics.
That basically hits the nail on the head. Mechanical tricks can give temporarily increased velocity, but put so much wear and tear on elbows and shoulders.
Kids trying to throw breaking pitches when they are way too young! Not developed enough yet to do that!
I understand the stress on the arm and mind as a kid to preform but he is 29 it’s not a tear over the last 15 years. Heaney, Tropeano now Ramirez and shoemaker? Come on something’s up!!!
Angelfanforlife19….He has 1233.0 inning on his arm just in pro ball. No saying how many as a kid. Darvish had 1601.4 as a pro, Smyly had only 736.2 but again, that is at the pro level. How many innings do you think he added in his youth where the damage starts.
Do you trust the opinions of Dr. Andrews? How about the late Dr. Jobe? Johns Hopkins Medical? They all say the same thing over and over. It starts with over working kids arms, playing the one sport year round, taking less time off that big leaguers do…it’s cumulative plain and simple.
If you don’t want to read any of the many interviews with Andrews or Jobe here is a youtube interview with Dr. Andrews
youtube.com/watch?v=utqT9EgRUtw
Here is another good resource to look consider. Look at the history, the number of players and how it rose and the ballooned in the 2000 from all the kids playing year round and being convinced that pitchers MUST throw hard all of the time.
mlbreports.com/tj-surgery/
Yeah i’m not convinced to many injuries in a short span….a review isn’t unreasonable we are closer to the playoffs this year than ever so jump on it in every which way possible.
Never let fact get in the way of an unfounded nefarious theory….smh.
Tis the age we unfortunately find ourselves in, friend.
lol what a waste of time you are
You must be looking in a mirror.
They should try to sign someone like John Lackey, or maybe Feldman. What else is out there at this point? Nolasco, Jiminez, Latos, Alvarez, Brett Anderson? The options are pretty ugly.
Nolan Ryan:
7 no hitters
12 one-hitters
18 two hitters
there’ll never be another Express.