The Cubs announced to reporters, including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times, that Ethan Roberts will undergo Tommy John surgery. Roberts was already on the 60-day injured list due to shoulder inflammation, meaning no roster moves will be necessary.
This is yet another unfortunate setback for Roberts here in 2022, on the heels of a promising 2021. A fourth round draft pick from 2018, Roberts threw 54 innings with an ERA of 3.00 between Double-A and Triple-A last year. That came alongside an impressive 32.6% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate. On the strength of that season, he was selected to the club’s 40-man roster in November and then cracked the Opening Day active roster out of Spring Training.
His big league career got off to a good start, as he allowed just a single earned run through his first five appearances. However, his next four appearances yielded six earned runs, perhaps due to injury. He was placed on the IL on May 2 due to shoulder inflammation. He began a rehab assignment on Sunday, though was removed after just four pitches, presumably due to his elbow issues becoming apparent.
With this news of his imminent Tommy John surgery, Roberts will be out of action for around 12-18 months, the typical recovery window for such procedures. As such, this will wipe out the remainder of his 2022 and potentially his entire 2023 as well. Needless to say, that’s an unfavorable turn of events for a pitcher who previously seemed to be on a good trajectory. The 24-year-old will spend the rest of the year on the IL and finish the season with exactly one year of MLB service time. He’ll need to return to the 40-man over the offseason but can go back on the 60-day IL for the entirety of next season, assuming he holds his roster spot through the winter.
For the Cubs, they’re not in a competitive window right now, but it’s still unfortunate that they will be losing development time for one of their promising young pitchers. They will now have to wait until 2024 to get a better idea of how Roberts can factor into their future bullpen plans.
Eton Roberts we hardly knew ya
Or like most of us, we never heard of ya. Honestly, I had to go past the headline to even know what team this news affected.
Are the cubs trading Ian Happ this year?
I wonder what type of return would he bring?
A top 100 or just outside plus a low level lottery ticket or two?
Ian Happ is having a great season, but with an inconsistent track record, I don’t suspect he will require a top 100, but perhaps 2 of a team’s mid-range prospects, or a few lotto tickets.
Maybe the Cubs can package him with Willson Contreras to net a top 100 with a couple lotto tickets. We shall see.
I wonder if you can package Contreras and Happ to Padres for Campusano and Myers (help off set the payroll for the Padres)
More would need to be added to the deal, but if the Cubs can pry away Campusano that would be a huge win.
Dunk–not sure the Padres would do that….the difference in Happ + Contreras salary to Myers is only about $6M and prorated over trade time that would be only about $2.5 – $3 M savings.
For Contreras it’s only a rental and Happ has another year of control so I don’t know that it’s worth it depending on the Padres real projection of Campusano.
The Cubs paid up on Baez last year to upgrade the take to Crow-Armstrong and did the same with Rizzo’s money last year to get Alcantara. It wouldn’t be out of the question to see some moves like this (taking on Myer’s last two months) from that side of the table. Myers buyout at the end of the year is $1M so that is negligible.
If the Padres think Contreras is that last piece to a championship they may do it.
The Cubs would happily deny that trade…
A change of scenery former top prospect and an overpaid DH for the top available position player and a controllable average position player?
Well there goes the Cubs’ season.
I had high hopes for him this season, perhaps as the Cubs 2nd half closer. I hope he recovers well and can develop into that role in the future.
The Cubs finally develop a quality pitcher in their system, and this happens.
Long history of that…I cannot even bear to think of a guy named Mark Prior.
What about Justin Steele and Keegan Thompson?
Guy didn’t even look good at AAA so I don’t know why he was brought up. No one was fooled by his stuff. Best of luck with the surgery and finding your way back to the majors.
Tough break. He’s gonna be a good pitcher.