Guardians lefty Anthony Gose underwent Tommy John surgery yesterday, per the team. He’ll miss the remainder of the current season, of course, and quite likely all of the 2023 campaign as well, given the timing of the procedure.
Gose, 32, was a second-round pick, as an outfielder, by the Phillies back in 2008. Traded to Houston as one of the headline prospects in the deal that brought Roy Oswalt to Philadelphia, Gose eventually landed in Toronto after a one-for-one flip that sent fellow top prospect Brett Wallace to the Astros.
While Gose did indeed make it to the big leagues as an outfielder, he hit just .240/.309/.348 in parts of five seasons — three with the Jays and two with the Tigers. Touted for his blazing speed, Gose never managed to reach base enough or come up with enough power to keep his place in the Majors.
A former two-way star in high school, Gose began working off the mound again with the Tigers in 2017 and, by 2018, had become a full-time pitcher in the Rangers organization. He signed with Cleveland in 2019 and has spent the past several seasons remaking himself as a flamethrowing reliever, showing off the arm strength that helped make him such a promising outfield prospect in a new way: with a triple-digit heater.
Gose pitched in 28 games for the Indians/Guardians across the past two seasons, logging a combined 27 2/3 innings with a 3.90 ERA, a 31.9% strikeout rate and a 13.8% walk rate. While command has been an issue for him, he averaged just shy of 98 mph on his fastball and generated an impressive 15% swinging-strike rate in his limited big league work on the mound. The potential for an impactful, high-leverage relief role was there, if Gose could scale back the free passes a bit.
Gose hit the injured list earlier this summer with what was initially announced as a left triceps strain. At the time, the injury wasn’t believed to be particularly serious, though certainly things have changed. It’s not clear whether Gose sustained a ligament tear while working back from that triceps issue or if there was simply more damage in the arm than initially discovered or divulged, but the end result is the same: another sizable roadblock in one of the more atypical baseball journeys we’ve seen in recent years. Gose is a feel-good story of perseverance whether he makes it back to the mound in what would be his age-34 season or not, but it’s hard not to root for another comeback after all the struggles he’s already endured.
Back then, Tigers GM Dombrowski sent Tigers top prospect Deon Travis for Gose to Toronto – one of many bad trades that followed and ended the Tigers dominance over the AL Central. Gose just couldn’t hit. But I absolutely admire how he came back as a pitcher, basically reinventing himself and showing great perseverance. Hopefully he will come back again – at least he knows how to do it!
Gruß,
BSHH
Travis was a flash in the pan but I would hardly consider that trade to be the downfall of the Tigers. Locking up Miggy hurt and holding onto V-Mart and Sanchez for too long hurt more. But Dave put them in realistic playoff contention for a while. And let’s be real, thag is what Dave was brought in to do. Make them competitive to try and win it all because Illitch loved the city and want to see a winner before he passed. It was sad they couldn’t capture a title for Illitch before he was gone but I do not fault them for going for it in that situation. Illitch was one of the few owners that deeply cared for his city and team he deserved to have a ring.
Cleveland fan here, but I totally respect the hell out of Mike Illitch. Dude paid Rosa Parks’ rent in Detroit for over a decade, telling no one until it was revealed after his death.
Travis is out of Baseball already so can’t really complain that that was a bad deal.
Gose was a nice story as sort of a reverse Rick Ankiel. We’ll see if he gets another shot in ’24
Anthony worked so hard to become a pitcher. He has the zeal and commitment for the ages.
Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery.
They should make all pitchers get Tommy John surgery whether they need it or not as soon as they get drafted, just to get it out of the way.
Plenty of pitchers never need TJS, so suggesting it be policy for everyone to go under the knife is ludicrous. If a pitcher needs that, so be it for the club to overcome.
If I’m drafting a pitcher, he’s getting TJ before he gets a contract. I will build an entire staff of robotic arms and protect my investment. This is what separates me from the commoner
Yeah, because it was so remarkably easy getting all MLB COVID vaccinated. This plan will definitely work.
TJ doesn’t make you infertile
You missed my point, but thanks for your medical expertise and insights Dr. SliderWithCheese, Epidemiologist. You keep us all properly informed of public health issues, which is why we come to MLBTR in the first place.
no, but it’s been proven catching christian flu, i mean covid, does.
good luck to all those antivax nutjobs when they can’t get it up anymore (and no pills allowed, cause if you’re a jesus freak who refused to accept science when it came to this, well then, not being able to get it up and/or firing blanks is all god’s plan for q, i mean you, right?)
He’s a hot-take troll….if you read his posts in a Jerry Seinfeld voice, you’ll understand….
cpdp,
Dr. SliderWithCheese recommends unnecessary, elective surgery, and you refer to me as a troll. Jeez, what’s wrong with you?
haha lmao thats great, one of the stupider things ive ever heard on this website, you do know that like a 5th of all TJ guys are never the same!?! the idea of ruining 20% of all the pitchers is actually sane to you?
Watched him play in high school. “Blazing” speed is an understatement. Great kid. Wish the best for him
It’s impressive Gose successfully went from a position player to a pitcher in MLB. I hope his arm is fixed well in this operation and he can make another go of it in a year or so.
That is a tough blow to his comeback.. I hope he stays with it though.
As a pitcher he’s with one of the best organizations.
They will handle him properly, and have exhibited patience with all players. As long as it takes.
Does this mean the Guardians are obligated to pay for his upcoming arbitration year? Or, could they release him as if he wasn’t injured? I never understood how that worked during arb years when a player is on the current mlb roster-injured-and will miss extended time, including the following season..
they can and will release him.
guys can and do get hurt all the time during their arb years.
happened to trevor rosenthal, greg holland, to name 2.
they could work out a 2 year deal, for example, with a low base for both years, incentives for 2024 if they think he’s worth keeping, but that also means holding a roster spot for him during the offseason.
might just release him after the season, then could give him minor league deal (so he doesn’t get service time for 2023) and then maybe give him major league deal if rehab goes well (or do same deal, but convert it to major league deal once pitchers and catchers report, put him on 40 man, then put him on injury list and get roster spot back. but that’s more like them doing him a solid than anything else).
That makes sense, thanks
I’m assuming he gets non-tendered after this season then. He was already kind of a fringe roster candidate for Cleveland, who has another 40 man roster crunch coming up this offseason. He could miss most of next year, and even when he’s first able to pitch he would be best suited to rehabbing in the minors until he regains what little control he had.
I guess there’s a chance someone does the Clevinger thing with him and signs him to a cheap 2 year deal that provides him a place to rehab, and he would essentially be able to be retained for a third year via arbitration.