The Astros announced that right-hander Oliver Ortega underwent surgery yesterday to remove a bone spur in his throwing elbow. He will miss the entire 2024 season. Lorenzo Delgado of Our Esquina was among those to relay the news on X.
Ortega, 27, was claimed off waivers from the Twins in October. In March, he underwent surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow, with the club providing a three-to-four-month recovery timeline at that point. Ortega started the season on the 15-day injured list and was transferred to the 60-day IL shortly thereafter. With this new surgery, it will go down as a completely lost season for the righty.
That’s obviously an unfortunate development for Ortega, as he was coming off an encouraging season. With the Twins in 2023, he tossed 14 2/3 innings at the major league level with a 4.30 earned run average. In 34 2/3 frames at the Triple-A level, he had a 1.82 ERA, 32.6% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate and 48.1% ground ball rate.
He went on the IL in August last year due to a left lumbar strain and stayed there for the end of the season. The IL goes away during the offseason, so the Twins tried to run Ortega through waivers but the Astros swooped in with a claim, undoubtedly intrigued by those strong Triple-A numbers last year. Instead, the righty’s injury woes have continued and he will have spent over a year without appearing in a major or minor league game by the time this season is over.
If there’s any consolation for Ortega, it’s that he’s collecting a full year of big league pay and service time in 2024, which is not nothing for a guy who’s been up-and-down for most of his career to this point. He came into this year with one year and 19 days of service, meaning he’ll be at 2.019 at the end of the year. He will need to be reinstated from the IL in the offseason. If he hangs onto his 40-man spot into the 2025 season, he still has one option year remaining.
Astros have more pitchers on the IL than off it, yet they are still winning.