Prelander Berroa, Juan Carela To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

The White Sox announced that right-handers Prelander Berroa and Juan Carela will require Tommy John surgery in the coming days. Both pitchers will therefore miss the entire 2025 season and likely part of 2026 as well. James Fegan of Sox Machine was among those to relay the news.

Berroa, 25 in April, came to the White Sox from the Mariners last February as part of the Gregory Santos trade. He spent the 2024 season getting shuttled between the majors and Triple-A. He tossed 19 innings in the big leagues with a 3.32 earned run average. His 31.3% strikeout rate was huge but he also gave out walks at a concerning 15.7% clip. In his 46 1/3 Triple-A innings, he had a 6.41 ERA, 22.5% strikeout rate and 16.1% walk rate.

The control is an obvious flag but the ingredients are interesting. Berroa averaged over 97 miles per hour on both his four-seamer and his sinker last year, while also throwing a slider that averaged 87.7 mph. He was wild with the White Sox but also able to rack up strikeouts. His Triple-A numbers weren’t as good but that seems to be an outlier. From 2021 to 2023, he threw 264 2/3 minor league innings with a 3.13 ERA, 34.9% strikeout rate and 14% walk rate.

Ideally, Berroa would have used the 2025 season to continue harnessing his powerful arsenal. Instead, he’ll have to miss the entire campaign and perhaps part of next season as well. He currently has 45 days of service time. Assuming the White Sox put him on the 60-day injured list at some point, he’ll get a full year of service time and will be 26 next April, around the time when he should be getting healthy.

Carela, 23, has yet to make his major league debut and hasn’t pitched at the Triple-A level either. He was just added to the 40-man roster in November to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He came to the Sox from the Yankees via the 2023 Keynan Middleton trade. From 2021 to 2024, he tossed 371 2/3 innings in the minors with a 4.12 ERA, 26.8% strikeout rate and 10.1% walk rate.

The numbers have been good but he only just reached Double-A in August of last year, getting seven starts there. It would have been great for him to spend 2025 continuing to work towards the majors and working his way into the rotation depth mix, but that will have to be put on pause until some time next year.

The White Sox optioned him to Double-A earlier today, an understandable move. As mentioned, he only just reached that level late last year. They will likely keep him on the minor league injured list for now. If they wanted to open up a 40-man roster spot at some point in the season, they could recall Carela and place him on the big league 60-day IL, though doing so would require giving Carela major league pay and service time.