The White Sox officially announced their previously-reported trade with the Cubs, acquiring left-hander Bailey Horn. To open a spot for Horn on their 40-man roster, they have moved right-hander Jesse Scholtens to the 60-day injured list with torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. James Fegan of Sox Machine was among those to relay that Scholtens will have Tommy John surgery on Friday.
Scholtens, 30 in April, was able to make his major league debut last year. He made 26 appearances, including 11 starts, logging 85 innings in the process. He had a 5.29 earned run average in that time, striking out 15.4% of opponents while issuing walks at an 8% clip. His work in Triple-A was stronger, as he made nine starts at that level with a 4.44 ERA, 23.4% strikeout rate and 6.8% walk rate.
He was likely going to be serving in a depth role for the club this year, given that he still has a couple of options remaining. The Sox have remade a lot of their pitching staff over the last year. They have traded Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly, Lucas Giolito, Gregory Santos, Kendall Graveman, Aaron Bummer, Reynaldo López, Yohan Ramírez and Keynan Middleton since last summer, while pitchers like Mike Clevinger and Liam Hendriks departed via free agency. They have also added guys like Erick Fedde, Chris Flexen, John Brebbia, Tim Hill, Michael Soroka, Jared Shuster and others, but there should be plenty of opportunity for a depth arm or two to step up and fill a role this year.
Unfortunately, Scholtens won’t be able to take advantage of that opportunity. He will miss the entire 2024 campaign and likely some early portions of the 2025 season as well, given that Tommy John rehabs generally run more than a year in length. He’ll remain on the injured list for all of 2024, collecting major league service time and pay.
Ah horse s**t!
Instead of TJ surgery, can we just put a robotic arm on these guys so they can throw for decades to come?
I hope Tommy John gets some kind of residuals everytime his name is mentioned. That would be some kind of retirement income!
They should just automatically perform TJ surgery on every pitcher before they make their debut just to get it out of the way. Right of passage if you will:)
Rite. Rite of passage.
Ive only been a baseball fan for about 20nyears but the rate that these surgeries have increased sense ive watched baseball is insane. I believe its to due with the max effort pitch style nowadays. Every pitcher throws 90% plus every pitch
When the Scholtens the fan
Don’t quit your real job if you have one, your comedic skills are as bad as Pedro Grifawful is a manager.
He’s here all week and don’t forget to tip your waitress…and set her upright again.
*rim shot*
@Doug He’s working on new material! Is this one a pass?
Pedro Grifawful lmao
Didn’t the Braves sign Reynaldo Lopez as a Free Agent? Not a trade?…I may be wrong but pretty sure so
The White Sox traded Reynaldo Lopez at the deadline last year, which is what the article is referring to when it refers to trades “since last summer”. He did become a free agent at the end of the season, and the Braves signed him thereafter.
Tommy John is probably glad that he wasn’t the first guy to get a colonoscopy.
I wonder if Scholtens will ever pitch again in MLB
lol
I have a feeling Cease is next if the White Sox are not careful.