The Astros provided reporters, including Chandler Rome of The Athletic, with an update on injured right-hander Luis Garcia. His second opinion revealed “inflammation in his right elbow.” He will be shut down for another four weeks before being reevaluated.
The elbow has been an ongoing issue for almost two years now. Garcia’s last major league appearance was May 1st of 2023. He departed that game with some elbow soreness and it was quickly determined that he would require Tommy John surgery. Given that it usually takes 14 months or more to recover from such a procedure, a return late in 2024 was possible. He started a rehab assignment in June but was quickly shut down due to ongoing soreness and didn’t return to the mound in the later months of the season.
Despite that frustrating setback, it seemed fair to expect him to get 100% healthy in the offseason and be ready for 2025. But he was again shut down two weeks ago due to renewed discomfort in his elbow. He was sent for further examinations and is now facing another shutdown period.
On the one hand, today’s update could have been worse. A four-week shutdown isn’t quite as bad as another season-ending surgery. On the other hand, it’s surely frustrating for Garcia and the club that he can’t seem to get over the hump. Even if he’s healthy in four weeks, he will need the equivalent of a full spring ramp-up, which will probably add another six weeks or so. That means he’s probably not going to be back with the Astros until June even in the best-case scenario. By that point, it will have been more than two years since his last big league game.
Prior to all these problems, he was a solid piece of the Houston rotation. He logged 155 1/3 innings over 30 appearances in 2021, posting a 3.48 earned run average. He made another five starts in the playoffs. In 2022, he made 28 more regular season starts with a 3.72 ERA.
Getting him back into the mix would be ideal but that will have to wait at least another few months. The Astros will likely transfer him to the 60-day injured list once they need a 40-man roster spot. For now, their rotation consists of Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco, Spencer Arrighetti and Hayden Wesneski.
Garcia is one of several injured starters, as Lance McCullers Jr., J.P. France and Cristian Javier are also on the IL. Until someone in that group gets healthy, the top depth starter is perhaps Colton Gordon. He has no major league experience but is on the 40-man roster and throwing in Triple-A.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
Two years. Wow.
Sad news for Luis. I hope the Astros get him back soon. He was a reliable rotation piece and is missed.
Unfortunately, this appears to be one of the UNSUCCESSFUL RECOVERIES of the ever popular SUCCESSFUL SURGERY that we hear so much about. Hopefully he eventually gets healthy enough to return to the mound.
If he doesn’t show progress this year, I suspect the Astros will non-tender him. I enjoyed watching Garcia, but if a guy is out for three years, there’s got to be questions about whether he’ll even be any good if he’s ever healthy enough to return. Tough deal.
This is unfortunate for him and I’d assume you re right about being non tendered.
Maybe he ll get lucky and the soreness is just fatigue as his arm hasn’t been used much in quite sometime. After injuries it’s easy to get paranoid about pain and discomfort in that area.
He’ll still be back before McCullers.
I actual think McCullers will pitch first in MLB. This is a rare time I’d have faith in his health. However total innings pitched in 2025, I’m going Garcia. 2026 and 2027 I’m going Garcia as well.
The Astros have 85 million reasons to wait for McCullers. They don’t have the same obligation to Garcia. However, this is another example why pitchers especially should take the early career extension if they can. Hunter Brown may be the staff ace right now, but tomorrow may be a bad day.
I agree on taking early extensions for pitchers. As far as McCullers and Garcia, I understand the dynamic with their futures in regard to HOU. I was just speaking of who I think will log more MLB playing time going forward and I’ve gotta feel it’s Garcia.
As for McCullers I hope to seem him put together some healthy seasons with significant IP. He’s got a dynamic arm when healthy.
The Astros should plan for Garcia missing the full season rather than waiting for another shutdown in June.