Royals left-hander Foster Griffin revealed in a tweet tonight that he underwent Tommy John surgery last Tuesday in Los Angeles, with Dr. Neal ElAttrache performing the procedure. As such, Griffin will be out of action for the next 12-14 months, quite possibly sidelining him until the 2022 season.
Griffin suffered a tear in his UCL during his very first Major League game, back on July 27 in Kansas City’s 14-6 win over the Tigers. Griffin earned the win after tossing 1 2/3 innings of relief, retiring all five batters without a hit or a walk, and was perfect apart from one runner reaching via error. Adding to the bittersweet nature of Griffin’s debut and subsequent injury, July 27 was also his 25th birthday.
Drafted 28th overall in 2014, Griffin was making his MLB debut after an inconsistent six-year stint in the Royals’ farm system. The southpaw has a 4.77 ERA, 2.19 K/BB rate, and 7.2 K/9 over 708 minor league innings, starting 139 of his 141 games. Given this lack of a track record, back-end starter or long man might be his eventual ticket to remaining in the big leagues, though obviously Griffin’s first order of business will be getting healthy after a long rehab period.
ouch. at least he got a game in.
Foster “Moonlight” Griffin.
Benefit hear is that he gets to accrue his service time on the DL. It’s only a silver lining, but he’ll get big league pay while he’s out compared to minor league rates.
And he’ll be on MLB salary all through 2021 as opposed to a minor league salary. He’ll also accrue MLB service time. The injury sucks, but better it happened in the majors and not at the alternate site.
His name is foster? Wtf
Met him when I worked for the Royals single A team. Great dude to be around. Hopefully he recovers quickly
I was watching that game when he had to be pulled. we got him his first major league win at least.. I hope his rehab goes well and he’s able to be part of the Royals pitching staff in 2023 (Unless his rehab goes really well and he can help in late September 2022, Though that is very unlikely)
You’re a year off. It’s 2020 now, and all attempts to end this “lovely” year early have been rejected by the gods.
He might be able to throw a few innings in 13 months, September 2021, but certainly should be back by the start of the following season in April 2022, unless aliens enslave us or the murder hornets kill us. All possible before the end of 2020.
What a bummer! I agree with DarkSide in being glad he got a MLB game in (and a win). I wish him a complete recovery and a long career!
Another job created. How many more TJS will it take to wake people up? This is a huge problem.
Between Foster Griffin and Tommy John, you have enough first and last names to create two real names.
Brings to mind Stefan Wever, a pitcher few will remember. A top pitching prospect for the Yankees, he made his MLB debut against the Brewers in 1982. A cold day, he tore his rotator cuff in the first inning of his first—and sadly last—major league start. Fortunately for Griffin, TJS has a very high success rate, unlike the shoulder injury Wever suffered. Few pitchers back then returned to form with that type of shoulder injury.
I wonder how many pitchers have had their careers basically end due to injury in their first MLB start?
Thanks for posting that. Love going down Baseball Reference rabbit holes like this.
He pitched a few years after in the Yanks minor league system but never made it back. (Point of clarification, he threw 2 2/3 innings in his first/only start)