The Astros shut down Luis Garcia last week after the righty experienced renewed soreness in his elbow. The team hasn’t provided much in the way of specifics since then, but manager Joe Espada told the beat on Tuesday that Garcia was going for a second opinion (relayed by Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle).
Garcia underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2023. He hasn’t pitched in a major league game since then. Garcia was targeting a second-half return last season, which would have aligned with the standard TJS rehab timetable. They pulled back after he experienced elbow soreness. That theoretically allowed them to slow-play his recovery as he targeted a 2025 return.
The 28-year-old was going to begin this season on the injured list, but he’d been on a throwing program this spring. They shut that down last week after the latest bout of elbow discomfort. Espada didn’t say whether surgery was again a possibility. Any mention of a second opinion tends to be alarming, though it doesn’t guarantee Garcia sustained a significant injury. In any case, he’s unlikely to pitch anytime soon, since the Astros will presumably exercise caution given his recent history.
Houston will open the season with a starting five of Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Spencer Arrighetti, Ronel Blanco and Hayden Wesneski. Garcia joins Lance McCullers Jr., Cristian Javier and J.P. France on the injured list. McCullers could return within the first few weeks, but he hasn’t pitched in an MLB game since the 2022 World Series because of repeated setbacks of his own.
Ryan Gusto and Colton Gordon, neither of whom have pitched in the majors, project as the top depth arms on the 40-man roster. Gordon is beginning the season with Triple-A Sugar Land. The 26-year-old Gusto will break camp and work in long relief, the Astros announced earlier this week. He’ll be in line for his major league debut after working 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball this spring (albeit with seven walks).
Gusto actually received his first MLB call last September. The Astros tabbed him to start their final regular season game after clinching the AL West. They didn’t want to burn one of their playoff starters for what was a meaningless game, and they would’ve needed to add Gusto to the 40-man roster that offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. Unfortunately for Gusto, the game was canceled by rain, delaying his big league debut by a few months.
Luis Garcia is probably still having discomfort from that homerun that Jorge Soler hit off him in game 6 of the 2021 World Series!!
Classy comment considering this is pretty much the worst possible news for a guy and his career bozo
He will be damned.
I’m unfamiliar with the term. What’s a “career bozo”?
I think he had a TV show once
Probably need to extending pitcher rehab timelines. I wonder if he internal brace was used in this situation.
He had TJS not internal brace. It’s stated in the article what and when.
I’m not a doctor, but these extended recoveries with setbacks don’t make sense to me. I would think the medical staffs would better understand elbows and mechanics. I guess this shows how little we know actually know about biomechanics.
I wonder if it has to do with the timetables, also. I get that they need to ramp guys back up at some point, but perhaps the current timeframe they have for these recoveries isn’t sufficient. It seems that nearly every time we hear about flexor tendon strain with “no structural damage” or elbow inflammation with no damage, it still results in TJS a large majority of the time.
Injuries just affect each player individually. Some guys recover quicker, some guys take longer, and Mike Trout takes forever.
Has second opinion ever decreased a pitchers injury time?
Second opinion: “yep, that’s an elbow”