Brewers reliever Bobby Wahl has suffered a torn ACL in his right knee and will likely miss the 2019 season, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com was among those to report. Wahl incurred the injury while pitching, making it a particularly rare occurrence, general manager David Stearns pointed out (via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).
Stearns acquired the 26-year-old Wahl from the Mets this past January in a four-player trade centering on outfielder Keon Broxton, and the right-hander could have worked his way into the Brewers’ bullpen mix in 2019. Instead, Wahl seems poised to sit out the year after succumbing to yet another serious injury in his short professional career. A fifth-round pick of the Athletics in 2013, Wahl dealt with oblique and elbow problems early in his tenure with them, and he underwent thoracic outlet syndrome surgery in 2017.
Wahl returned from the procedure last year to post excellent production with Oakland’s Triple-A affiliate, as he pitched to a 2.27 ERA/2.48 FIP with a sky-high strikeout rate (14.75 K/9, compared to 3.86 BB/9) over 39 2/3 innings. The A’s then traded Wahl to the Mets in a July deal for reliever Jeurys Familia. Wahl ended up throwing 5 1/3 innings apiece with the Mets and their top minor league affiliate.
Thus far, Wahl owns just a 6.92 ERA/4.93 FIP with 10.38 K/9 and 5.54 BB/9 across 13 big league frames. However, Wahl’s strong output in the minors has helped him rank among the Brewers’ top 30 prospects at both FanGraphs (No. 19) and MLB.com (No. 26). Back in November, FanGraphs’ Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen lauded Wahl’s four-pitch mix – including a mid- to high-90s fastball and a “bat-missing” curve – though they noted he carries a higher degree of injury risk than most pitching prospects.
Guess he thought he was still a Met?
What are the brewers to do??
That kinda bites but at least it isnt a Tommy John.
That sucks. He loses a year of his career and faces a daunting rehabilitation process.
Since the tear happened while pitching, perhaps something in his motion caused it. If so — and if he doesn’t change his motion — it’ll keep recurring.
I would highly doubt it. It would speculate he harmed it doing to much in the weight room or conditioning, but it didn’t fully tear until he landed on it wrong while throwing. Since there hasn’t been any other pitcher to tear their ACL in the act of pitching, this is far more likely to be a anomaly.
When have you ever heard of a pitcher tearing their ACL twice when pitching? Once is rare enough. To suggest something in his mechanics would continue to harm his ACL is pretty foolish. This is most likely an injury from something else that was revealed by a pitch. I’d feel 99% more confident w that answer than suggesting the strain of his throwing motion harmed his ACL. It’s not as if Wahl has very unique mechanics. Something like like Carter Capps and his crow hop he had on the mound. I could see an argument there if he pitched like that. You’d see this injury a lot more if it was mechanically related.
Too bad for Wahl. Fortunately the Brewers’ relief pitching is a very deep unit. He probably would have seen some MLB innings this year, but this is an opportunity for someone else.
Not often you hear a pitcher tearing his ACL
Stroman did it 2 years ago but it was during pitcher fielding practice on a miscommunication between he and Donaldson. He made it back in 5 months. Pretty incredible
Mariano Rivera
Correct me if I’m wrong, didn’t Mo tear his shagging fly balls during batting practice? One of the most nonchalant activities to have had such a bad injury.
Yup! His pre-game routine
Karma to the brewers on the Thorn trade
Not sure you understand what karma means
Lol….whatever will we do without Wahl? Might as well concede the central…..
Bobby hit the Wahl.
Mechanics are everything and with all these injuries, it proves that Wahl is a thrower, not a pitcher. No surprise the phrase “sky-high strikeout rate” appears here, throwers can throw fast but not smart.
Pitching is an art form but if you don’t respect it and just heave the ball up there without thinking it through or with sound mechanics you will get injured = fact
Okay buddy. He didn’t hurt his arm. He tore his ACL. This is an extremely rare injury. Nothing to do with mechanics for Christ sake. Why don’t you read the article and realize what’s going on.
The odds of this being mechanics related is almost 0%. An ACL tear during the act of pitching is incredibly unprecedented. It is far more likely he did most of the damage elsewhere such as in the weight room or some off season training and the stress from pitching is the final straw. There is nothing is the motion towards home that would put enough force on the ACL to completely tear it in a pitch. It is also highly possible his cleat got stuck on the rubber. To make the assumption that this is clearly mechanics related because he “throws hard” is at best insanely biased.
Strike Five!
Mets dodged a bullet there.
Yovani Gallardo tore his ACL w/ the Brew Crew on May 1 and was pitching 5 months later (6 in) in Game 1 of the NLDS on Oct 1. Hopefully a speedy recovery.
Man, that sucks Wishing him a quick recovery.
the Brewers will finish 4th in the central
Agreed.
Who cares he’s a minor league pitcher.