Top Rays pitching prospect Cole Wilcox underwent Tommy John surgery on Wednesday this week, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter link). That’ll quite likely wipe out his entire 2022 campaign.
Wilcox, 22, came to the Rays as one of the key young pieces in the trade that sent lefty Blake Snell to San Diego. He was a third-round pick, selected No. 80 overall, just last summer — although that draft placement is somewhat misleading. Wilcox, a draft-eligible sophomore last summer, was widely viewed as a first-round talent but slipped down the draft board due to signability concerns. The Friars gave him a $3.3MM signing bonus — a record number for a third-round selection.
The Padres added Wilcox to their 60-man player pool last year and let him work out with at their alternate site over the course of the summer, but last year’s nixed minor league season meant that the former Georgia Bulldogs righty didn’t make his professional debut until this year with the Rays’ Class-A affiliate. Wilcox looked every bit like a first-round talent when cruising through A-ball lineups. In 44 1/3 innings, he pitched to a 2.03 ERA with an impressive 29.9 percent strikeout rate and an incredibly low 2.9 percent walk rate.
Wilcox only recently turned 22, so he’ll still be just 23 years of age when he returns to the mound — presumably early in the 2023 campaign. Obviously, it’s not ideal for a promising young pitcher to effectively lose two seasons of development (2020 and 2022, in this case), but Wilcox has age on his side. Assuming he’s able to pitch a mostly full season in 2023, he’ll likely be added to Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster in the 2023-24 offseason, as he’d otherwise be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft that winter.
Even with Wilcox sidelined next season, the Rays have an impressive crop of rising young arms to tap into both in 2022 and in 2023. Luis Patino (also acquired in the Snell deal) and Shane McClanahan have already made an impact at the MLB level, and top prospect Shane Baz likely isn’t too far behind. Right-hander Seth Johnson, like Wilcox, has yet to pitch beyond Class-A, but the 2019 No. 40 overall selection has upped his prospect stock with an outstanding showing in A-ball this season.
Tampa Bay did trade away a pair of nearly MLB-ready arms — Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman — in order to acquire Nelson Cruz, but it seems we can scarcely go a year without a pop-up pitching prospect or two in the Rays’ perennially deep farm system garnering national attention. Recent trades and the loss of Wilcox notwithstanding, the Rays still boast a deep farm system that’ll continue to be ranked among the game’s best.
That sucks. Good luck kid.
Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery.
Thots and Players
TJ surgery has just become so normal now.
I wonder if any sort of elbow bracing would help?
It doesn’t seem that likely or they’d already be using them I guess.
Sucks for the young guys especially. I’ve torn my right ACL more than once and the pain is just silly. you can’t walk for 6 weeks (you can but you hobble or have to wear an immobilizer brace)
Can we just talk about how bad the reactions have flipped about this trade… when it was made everyone blasted the rays… now can we look back?
Just like a month ago guys were talking about how terrible it was for the Padres and preller should be fired for it. Guys love small samples around here
I still wish they would of kept him.
Don’t worry about it. A huge number of folks just like to complain it makes them feel better. Me too lol.
Guess it’s time to institute 40 pitch limits because obviously 60 pitches per start is too hard on the body.
I’m beginning to think pitch limits have absolutely zero bearing on whether or not a pitcher tears up his elbow.
Mechanics, types of pitches thrown, maybe even more basic as in structural damage done during growth cycles. Honestly, I have yet to hear a pitcher thank his manager for limiting his pitch counts because he thought it avoided surgery and prolonged his career. EVER.
Verducci wrote an article about the worthlessness of pitch limits. Of course, nobody paid attention to it apparently.
Yup.
Yeah, that and wear already on the arm by the time they are in the major leagues. Chances are, most pitchers in the game today have been pitching to other players since they reached double digits in age. Around my town, the little league organization has kids pitching to other kids when they’re 10-12 YO. Unless you’re having them pitch 100+ pitches each and every outing, pitch count isn’t going to massively affect your arm compared to pitching regularly, and training to pitch on a regular basis from the time you’re not even 13 up through your mid-to-late-30’s.
I agree. Have stud prospect but scared to let him pitch. By his free agent year hadn’t thrown more than 100 innings in a season. It’s getting ridiculous.
Well…….. that’s not a good start to the trade for the Rays. May wind up being one of the few trades they miss on.
Patino doesnt seem ready. Hunt isnt doing much in the minors. Wilcox needs TJS now. Mejia has been productive offensively, not sure about defensively.
Too early to tell, but the early returns aren’t looking too good.
Wouldn’t count Patino out and knowing the Rays resourcefulness they will flip a few of the aforementioned pieces in other trades and recoup value.
Bro. That trade was always supposed to take years to pay dividends for Tampa. They got 3 guys who were still a few years away and a project catcher. They were lucky to get any ML production at all out of Patiño and Mejia this year. And Snell was straight up bad his first 4 months in SD.
Geez, if you’re a pitcher I guess you just plan on at least on TJ surgery during your career.
It’s automatic when you get drafted by the Padres.
Hated to lose this kid in the Snell acquisition. Good luck on the road to recovery, Cole!
Yeah. This was a guy I wanted us to draft back in 2018 when he was in HS.
First time TJ at age 22 with no significant prior injury history isn’t ideal but it’s far from the end of the world.
Crying to MLB about Wilcox’s medicals in 5… 4… 3… 2…