Ricky Tiedemann To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

Blue Jays pitching prospect Ricky Tiedemann will undergo Tommy John surgery on Tuesday, manager John Schneider told reporters (including The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath).  It is a traditional TJ procedure rather than the increasingly popular brace procedure, and as a result Tiedemann will probably miss the entire 2025 season.

Tiedemann left a Triple-A outing on July 10 due to tightness in his left forearm, and had reportedly received multiple opinions about how to proceed with the injury.  Such a situation usually hints that surgery is being considered, and unfortunately for Tiedemann, he’ll now face the toughest setback yet of a pro career that has already been marked by injuries.

A third-round pick for Toronto in the 2021 draft, Tiedemann quickly got himself on the top-100 prospect radar with an impressive 2022 season that saw him go from A-ball to high-A to Double-A over the course of the year (totaling 78 2/3 innings).  He was limited to only 44 frames in 2023, however, due to biceps and shoulder injuries, though Tiedemann did make his Triple-A debut with a single start for Buffalo.  Calf and hamstring soreness slowed his work in Spring Training, and a bout of ulnar nerve inflammation sidelined him on Buffalo’s injured list earlier this season, which now looks like a precursor to his Tommy John surgery.  Tiedemann has thrown 17 1/3 innings spread over three minor league levels in 2024, with a 5.19 ERA and an unpalatable 19.28% walk rate.

All told, Tiedemann has thrown only 140 minor league innings over three professional seasons, plus 18 more frames in the 2023 Arizona Fall League.  He’ll only nominally add to that total during whatever minor league rehab work comes in 2025, and a Major League debut that at one point seemed likely in 2023 has now almost surely been pushed back to 2026.

Tiedemann doesn’t turn 22 until next month so youth is on his side, and he can certainly still be viewed as a key piece of the Blue Jays’ future.  But obviously, it is anyone’s guess as to how the southpaw will bounce back after essentially two lost seasons of development, not to mention how his elbow may or may not hold up in the aftermath of a TJ procedure.  Though Tiedemann has yet to reach the big leagues, there are some comparisons here to another highly-touted Jays pitching prospect in Nate Pearson, who has been used exclusively as a reliever in the last two seasons due to health concerns.  (Ironically, Pearson’s Jays tenure ended today when he was dealt to the Cubs.)

Losing Tiedemann to major UCL surgery only adds to the Blue Jays’ all-around disappointment of a 2024 season.  Expecting to contend and reach the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons, Toronto has instead sputtered to a 47-56 record, and only five teams have a worse winning percentage than the Jays’ .456 mark.  The trades of Pearson and Yimi Garcia have signaled that a retool is coming at the trade deadline, and while the team reportedly still plans to reload for another shot at contention in 2025, plenty of questions have to be asked about whether this strategy is viable, or if Schneider or GM Ross Atkins are the people best fit to get Toronto back to winning baseball.

The lack of minor league support is one strike against the Jays’ reload plans, as the club hasn’t been able to generate much in the way of in-house talent.  Tiedemann and Orelvis Martinez are the only two Blue Jays players in MLB Pipeline’s current top 100 prospects list, and Tiedemann is now slated for TJ surgery while Martinez is serving an 80-game PED suspension.