APRIL 28: Avilan has undergone the procedure, per Martinez (via Camerato). The 31-year-old is planning to rehab and continue his career.
APRIL 19: Avilan has decided to undergo Tommy John surgery, Martinez told reporters (including MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman).
APRIL 17: Nationals left-hander Luis Avilan suffered a tear in his left UCL, and the veteran reliever is now going to “weigh his options” in deciding how to address the injury, manager Davey Martinez told MLB.com’s Jessica Camerato and other reporters.
“He’s got options whether to sit out and see if it heals or, when you talk about a UCL, it usually has Tommy John surgery,” Martinez said. “I feel awful, as we always do when somebody gets hurt. But we wish him well and wish him a quick recovery, whichever way he decides to go.”
The injury occurred on Thursday, when Avilan tossed two shutout innings in Washington’s 11-6 loss to the Diamondbacks. It was seemingly a solid bounce-back outing after a brutal inning of work (six earned runs allowed) against the Cardinals two days earlier, though it now might result in a significant setback to Avilan’s career.
Avilan signed a minor league contract with the Nats in December, and locked in a $950K salary after he made the team’s Opening Day roster. After posting solid numbers over his first seven MLB seasons, Avilan struggled to a 5.06 ERA over 32 innings with the Mets in 2019 and then a shoulder problem limited him to 8 1/3 innings with the Yankees in 2020. The Nationals are the seventh different team of Avilan’s ten-year career in the bigs.
The Nats placed Avilan on the 10-day injured list yesterday, and even if Avilan opts against TJ surgery, he’ll still need quite a bit of recovery time (and likely a shift to the 60-day IL) before returning to the mound. In the worst-case event of a Tommy John procedure, Avilan faces a layoff of 13 to 15 months.
With Avilan sidelined, closer Brad Hand and Sam Clay are the only left-handers in the Nationals’ bullpen. Seth Romero and Ben Braymer are also on the 40-man roster, though Braymer could be seen more as rotation depth.
I don’t know, but maybe having him throw 38 pitches, two days after he threw 39 wasn’t the greatest idea.
Hindsight is 2020
He’s supposed to be a lefty specialist. Averaging over one inning per game was apparently too much for him.
Oh well, he got a little money for 2021 at least.
I wish I can have that “little money” and the guy have like 9 years in the league with over 10mil so far ! Nice career
@Larmando Did you take out taxes, agent fees and other expenses over the last 14 years of his life? Bet it’s not that much.
Shut up. Stupid comment.
It’s still a lot of money. What are you? Some obsessive accountant? He made ten million, insisting that he qualified further is unnecessarily obnoxious nit-picking
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Ok , let’s say he have makes 6mm after all that ! I haven’t make anything close to that ! Let’s even say he have 5mm dollars right now ! Isn’t that good ?
It is very good. These guys are people too, just like us, playing a game for our entertainment and earning a living. A very good one at that. Some people just really hate that I guess.
Yes. How dare they play a game they love for millions that someone is willing to pay! What is this a capitalist society or something? Shame shame shame….
Tough break for Avilan. Not off to good start but never good when a Pitcher faces TJ surgery
If he wasn’t a lefty he would be working the fry rack at McDonald’s
Yet another TJ surgery, all because of McDonald’s right-handed fry racks.
Actually, if he were a righty he would still be on a MLB roster.
Do UCL tears ever heal?
And I should add, I wish him well. He’s the type of pitcher that any loss of velocity or command could impact him more than others.
Some early trends:
Sunday’s four shutouts brought the 2021 MLB total to 40. During 2020’s short schedule, there were just 12 for the entire season. Since the start of the live-ball era in 1920, the only two seasons with a higher rate of shutouts-per-game are 1968 and 1972. Perhaps this trend will taper off when the weather heats up.
While it obviously very early, per-nine-innings strikeouts are at a record 9.4. If the trend holds, it would be the eighth straight season that the number has gone up. The first of those eight years was 7.7 in 2014, meaning it has increased by 1.7 per-nine-innings-since. Gotta wonder how much higher it can possibly go, and whether MLB will concoct something to reverse the trend. Not sure how I feel about the moving-the-mound-back experiment. We have enough arm injuries as it is.
If you’re going to move the mound back, make the bases longer. And move the fences out. Otherwise, no.
Dang- PLEASE SIGN WITH MARLINS
Every NL East team…?
I met Luis while he was a NY Met and he’s a classy dude. I wish him well in his recovery,
man forgot he was only 31
I thought the same thing. I imagined him being at least late 30s. Seems like he’s been around forever.