4:16PM: Brown spoke with reporters (including Danielle Lerner) today about McCullers’ injury, and didn’t give any more specifics on when in 2024 McCullers could return. The right-hander will begin throwing in November.
2:53PM: The Astros announced that Lance McCullers Jr. underwent forearm surgery on Tuesday, which will end the right-hander’s 2023 season. The procedure removed a bone spur and, more significantly, repaired McCullers’ damaged right flexor tendon.
McCullers has been rehabbing a muscle strain suffered early in Spring Training. Houston GM Dana Brown said last month that the team was looking at the All-Star break as a very rough estimate for when McCullers would be fully ready to return, but in the interim, McCullers suffered a pair of setbacks — he went from mound work to throwing off of flat ground, and was then shut down altogether due to continued soreness in his right arm. A subsequent MRI presumably revealed the flexor tendon damage, and thus McCullers will now close the books on his 2023 campaign without a single pitch thrown.
As Brown explained in a team press release, “each time [McCullers] built himself up to an increased pitch total off the mound, the pain would come back. It’s unfortunate, but we look forward to him being back on the mound next season.” Perhaps noteworthy is the fact that Brown and the release’s initial paragraph didn’t specify when McCullers could be back in 2024, which would seemingly hint that the righty won’t be ready for the start of Spring Training.
This will mark the second lost season for McCullers in the last five years, as he also missed all of the 2019 campaign due to Tommy John surgery. A flexor tendon strain suffered during the 2021 playoffs also limited McCullers to 47 2/3 innings last season, though he did return in time to make some starts down the stretch and throughout the postseason during the Astros’ World Series championship run. The press release noted that the Spring Training injury represented a re-aggravation of that same 2021 injury, so hopefully the surgery will finally correct the issue that has plagued McCullers for the better part of two years.
Between McCullers’ procedure and Luis Garcia’s Tommy John surgery, the Astros have lost two members of their projected starting five to season-ending injuries. Jose Urquidy has also been on the 15-day IL since the start of May due to shoulder inflammation, and while an MRI came back clean, Urquidy isn’t expected back until perhaps the All-Star break. (On the plus side, Urquidy did tell Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle that he is hoping to throw a bullpen session in about a week’s time.) If these injuries weren’t enough, former top prospect Forrest Whitley might also miss the rest of the season due to a lat strain.
Somewhat remarkably, Houston’s makeshift group of starters has still been one of the better rotations in baseball, in the latest testament to the organization’s minor league depth. Framber Valdez and Cristian Javier have led the way as more experienced arms, but rookies Hunter Brown and J.P. France and swingman Brandon Bielak have all pitched well. The latest edition of the MLBTR Podcast addressed what the Astros might do at the deadline in regards to adding starting pitching, including whether or not they might prioritize hitting over pitching in the wake of Yordan Alvarez’s oblique strain.
Between McCullers’ abbreviated 2022 season and now his lost 2023 season, it has been an unwelcome start to the five-year, $85MM extension the right-hander inked in March 2021. McCullers is still owed $51MM between 2024-26, and if he is able to put his flexor problems behind him, there is plenty of time to better make good on the Astros’ investment. Of course, it is also yet to be seen exactly how much of the 2024 season McCullers could miss, or whether or not he’ll be able to fully stay healthy given all the accumulated wear and tear on his arm in recent years.
welp
So much potential
Never healthy
Still better than Alex Reyes
McCullers is Just another million curveball throwing, junkball pitcher. Giving him a long term deal was a MAJOR mistake.
Agree and disagree… they needed starters. If he was healthy and giving them 3.5-4 era starts for a season it’s worth it. It was a risk/gamble and it’s not great thus far.
Hindsight. The guy was injured during the ’21 postseason when he was leading a thin, overworked rotation. Wishing LMJ the best with rehab.
I’d have signed him.. Garcia, Valdez, Urquirdy. and Javier were all kind of breaking out in 2021. I thought having a slightly older pitcher to coalesce around was important.
Hahah Go Dodgers!
Why’s that funny?
Bummer. I’m not an Astros fan at all, but I love baseball so I want the best players possible out there competing.
Receptionist: “Lance, I have a Tommy John on line one.”
Lance: “TAKE A MESSAGE!”
Something like 60% of his pitcher are curveballs. That pitch is NASTY for him, but it’s also tearing up his arm. Might be time to move to the pen.
Something like 60% of his pitches are curveballs. That pitch is NASTY for him, but it’s also tearing up his arm. Might be time to move to the pen.
I hate to hear anyone getting hurt. This sucks.
Lance has pitching knowledge, too. The curve is rough on arm, so he should be used like a Ray Snell and held to max 6 inning per start or optimal 4.
You mean Blake Snell who once pitched for the Rays or Ray Snell the football player?
Blake Snell. The Rays protect guys like him. Always pull way before trouble or strain. Optimal starts 6 innings, 90 pitches. Keep fresh. Let guy know he can always stay in muscle use zone, never ever gutting out those ligament, tendon tearing hercules days.
Such a shame, he’s so talented. But also, F the trashtros
Lance’s body doesn’t like him playing ball
Is it season-ending surgery if his season hadn’t yet begun? Bummer and gotta be frustrating for him. Best wishes.
Trade him to the Yankees straight up for Gleyber Torres
Not surprised. Hopefully he’ll be better when he comes back.
I had this surgery in January and feel great. I asked my orthopedic doctor if I can throw a 90+ mph slider after the surgery, and he said, “only if you’re ahead in the count”.
It’s amazing how when you change your culture to be a consistently winning team, injuries don’t hurt you nearly as much. Whereas the Astros should be in serious trouble, even the fill-ins become good (presumably because there is less pressure on them than if the team was struggling), and the machine keeps running smoothly. The Dodgers are the same, except they are pathetic because they have to buy big name players to keep their phony fans interested in overpaying to go watch Dodger games in person (after sitting in an extra hour of unnecessary traffic just to get up the hill to the parking lot). You can hate on the Astros for “cheating” all you want, but they were also willing to be terrible for many years in order to truly develop their own talent and become a consistent winner with a more modest payroll than big businesses like the Dodgers and Yankees, and they still fly under the radar somewhat and again, that’s probably why guys like Bielak and France can step up and pitch well without bearing the burden of the entire team.