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Kris Bubic To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

By Darragh McDonald | April 21, 2023 at 1:45pm CDT

Royals left-hander Kris Bubic will undergo Tommy John surgery, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. That will put him out of action for the remainder of 2023 and a portion of the 2024 season as well. The typical recovery timeline for Tommy John surgery is roughly 14-18 months. Bubic was placed on the 15-day injured list last week but the club will inevitably move him to the 60-day once they need a roster spot.

It’s a very unfortunate setback for Bubic, 25, who was showing some positive signs here in 2023. Coming into this year, he had a 4.89 ERA through 309 innings, a somewhat disappointing mark for a guy who was selected 40th overall in 2018 and had been a touted prospect in the years after that. But through his first three starts this year, he had a 3.94 ERA and possibly was even better than that number would indicate. He struck out 23.5% of batters faced and walked just 2.9%, big improvements over his 20% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate coming into the year. He also saw his ground ball rate jump to 52.1%, which was just 44.3% in prior seasons.

This is just three starts and small sample caveats certainly apply, but it’s also worth pointing out that Bubic had added a slider to his repertoire this year. Both Eno Sarris of The Athletic and Jake Mailhot of FanGraphs wrote pieces last week that highlighted Bubic’s improved arsenal in the early parts of the year, suggesting that his better results might have been for real and perhaps could have gotten better going forward. Though his 2023 ERA was about a full run better than his career mark, he had an even shinier 2.71 FIP and 3.45 SIERA. Again, it’s just three starts, but it was backed up by actual changes to his arsenal and might not have been just noise. Bubic and the Royals will now have to wait over a year to test those changes over a larger sample.

It’s obviously a blow for Bubic personally but also for the Royals, who have made some decisions that put their fortunes in the hands of young starters. They have used many of their early draft picks in recent years on pitchers, with not a lot of success. Between 2015 and 2018, Bubic, Brady Singer, Josh Staumont, Daniel Lynch, Jackson Kowar and Jonathan Bowlan were all selected in the first 65 picks of their respective drafts. Up until last year, none of that group had found much major league success. Singer finally bucked the trend in 2022 by posting a 3.23 ERA in 153 1/3 innings and it seemed there was a chance that Bubic was following him. But now the latter is out for the remainder of the year and the former is struggling to a 8.14 ERA through his first four starts.

This loss will only compound the various struggles that the Royals are facing right now, as they have limped out to a 4-15 start, with their .211 winning percentage below all MLB teams except for the Athletics. Without Bubic, the Royals will proceed with four regular starters in Zack Greinke, Jordan Lyles, Brad Keller and Singer. Tonight, Taylor Clarke is serving as an opener in front of Ryan Yarbrough, who figures to get the bulk of the innings. Lynch is on the IL with a shoulder strain but could factor in whenever he’s healthy.

Bubic qualified for arbitration this past offseason as a Super Two player, meaning this is his first of four arb seasons. He and the club agreed to a $2.2MM salary for this year. Even though he’s going to miss the vast majority of the season, he’ll be in line for a similar salary next year, since the arb system is designed so that salaries almost never go down. He can then go through the arbitration system twice more after that before he’s slated for free agency after 2026.

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Kansas City Royals Newsstand Kris Bubic

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Matt Foster Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
View Comments (17)
Post a Comment

17 Comments

  1. RyanD44

    2 years ago

    Forearm strain epidemic in MLB, which almost always leads to TJS. I think Brady Singer, Alec Manoah and Jose Berrios are on that same path.

    2
    Reply
    • acoss13

      2 years ago

      Along with the many many oblique injuries in baseball.

      Reply
    • Travis’ Wood

      2 years ago

      Why would they be on the same path?

      1
      Reply
      • acoss13

        2 years ago

        Yeah not sure any of them are on the same path unless they’ve been having elbow issues that I don’t know about.

        Reply
    • bronxmac77

      2 years ago

      Manoah sprained his forearm using a ladle at the Golden Corral.

      Heh heh heh…

      2
      Reply
  2. bronxmac77

    2 years ago

    This is horrible.

    (Looks skyward… raises hands upward)

    Why? WHY? WHY?!?!?

    6
    Reply
    • Curly Was The Smart Stooge

      2 years ago

      The English had to deal with the Bubic plaque, thousands died
      until they discovered the Bubic hair that was the cause of it all.

      Reply
  3. dano62

    2 years ago

    He was just getting it together too

    6
    Reply
    • acoss13

      2 years ago

      Usually how it goes, he’s got good stuff too, made some really good starts against the White Sox, and he’s looked sharp the times I’ve seen him.

      Reply
  4. sport_pkl

    2 years ago

    Did he throw the entire game with the UCL strain? His velo was down 3 to 4 mph on every pitch…..and he threw 100 pitches! AFTER a rain delay. Was it inevitable to happen, or could this have been avoided?

    1
    Reply
    • lamars

      2 years ago

      I think the outcome was inevitable. Which sucks for him as it looked like he was finally turning things around. Hope he has a speedy recovery.

      3
      Reply
  5. JDC

    2 years ago

    Question for anyone/everyone: There are so many more Tommy John surgeries happening now than there was 20-25 years ago. Why do you think the surgeries are happening so much more? Is it the way pitchers are throwing? How hard they are throwing? Or are pitchers just not talking care of themselves year round like they use to?? Something else?

    1
    Reply
    • C Yards Jeff

      2 years ago

      Good question. A bit of a mystery to me too. Are there a couple of new wrinkle pitches that weren’t around back in the day that possibly require unnatural forearm, elbow and or shoulder movement causing these injuries?

      Reply
      • avenger65

        2 years ago

        The oblique strains, not only to pitchers, seems to be an exercise and stretching issue. There were a lot of tj surgeries 20-25 years ago, but not as many in recent years. Even Bryce Harper, an OF, had a form of tj. I do think that pitchers seem to think they have to throw harder even though they don’t. That’s what breaking balls are for.

        1
        Reply
    • The UnderCROWNd

      2 years ago

      I coach high school. Somewhere before they get to me, they’ve been taught to throw baseballs like footballs. All elbow… Nobody incorporates their shoulder.

      1
      Reply
    • kcmark

      2 years ago

      May be these pitcher playing travel ball growing up. A lot of innings on those arms.

      Reply
  6. Homerunbunt

    2 years ago

    Hope he heals well, looked much improved this season. Rooting for ya Bubic.

    1
    Reply

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