June 14: Boone said Saturday that while no decision has been finalized, Cousins appears to be trending towards Tommy John surgery (via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com).
June 12: Yankees reliever Jake Cousins has yet to pitch in the majors this season due to a flexor strain. He’d recently set out on a minor league rehab assignment in hopes of a return in the near future but was pulled from his most recent appearance in High-A with a setback. It’s the second setback in his rehab — he also dealt with a pectoral issue last month — and manager Aaron Boone revealed yesterday that Cousins is now dealing with what “seems to be a UCL injury” (link via Jackson Stone of MLB.com).
The Yankees and Cousins are still in the process of gathering opinions, but it’s an unwelcome development. At the time of the 30-year-old right-hander’s initial forearm/flexor injury in early spring training, imaging showed that Cousins’ ligament was intact (as noted by the New York Post’s Greg Joyce back in February). The pitcher himself told the Yankees beat back then that doctors had said his ulnar collateral ligament “looked great” in the MRIs he’d undergone.
Cousins was quietly excellent for New York in 2024 after coming over from the White Sox in a spring trade that sent cash to Chicago. He wound up pitching 37 games for the Yanks and logged a 2.37 ERA with a huge 34.2% strikeout rate but an unsightly 12.9% walk rate across 38 innings. Cousins had previously seen time in parts of three big league seasons with Milwaukee but bounced from the Brewers to the Astros via waivers before becoming a minor league free agent, signing a minor league deal with the South Siders, and finally making his way back to the majors in the Bronx.
When healthy, Cousins has regularly looked the part of a useful bullpen arm — he just hasn’t been healthy all that often in recent years. Dating back to the 2021 season, the former Nationals draftee has missed time with a biceps strain, elbow effusion/bursitis, shoulder inflammation and a pectoral strain, among other maladies. He’s pitched to a 2.78 ERA in 90 2/3 innings and fanned just shy of one-third of the batters he’s faced since making his MLB debut as a Brewer back in 2021. However, he’s pitched only 169 2/3 innings — majors and minor leagues combined — over the past four-plus seasons because of frequent trips to the injured list.
Most of Cousins’ injuries have occurred while on the major league roster, so despite his limited innings tally in the big leagues, he’ll cross three years of major league service in 2025. That’ll qualify him for arbitration in the coming offseason, although if he’s unable to get on a big league mound this year, his price tag would still be close to the minimum. For now, the hope will obviously be that Cousins can avoid surgery, as a Tommy John procedure or internal brace operation could cost him a year or more. Presumably, the Yankees will have more information on the extent of Cousins’ injury and a treatment plan in the coming days, but it seems unlikely he’ll be able to return to a major league mound anytime soon.
That really sucks that he might need TJS after missing so much time already. Cousin Jake can pitch when healthy too…
Time to bring back Ottavino.
Or call D-Rob.
Yes definitely D-Rob on line 1.
Or call Kirko Chains.
Cousins Cousin!
He wants to play!
Flexor strain that is reportedly no structural damage turns into UCL injury….. you don’t say.
David Robertson waiting by the phone rn 🙂
I think the Yankees hired the Mets former medical staff: Hurwitz, Feinberg and Hurwitz.
Hasn’t he gotten an MRI this year?
This doesn’t sound like good medical management to me
Just like when they botched Greg Bird injury and derailed his career for a few years
Doh!
Did you see that recent Stroman interview in Somerset? Now he apparently is open to pitching out of the bullpen.
No. That would be great!
YBC
I guess being in Somerset can change a man haha
instagram.com/p/DKx3Lahttrr/?igsh=MWtxeXU4Mmx6bWc5…
x.com/snyyankees/status/1932936692974940573
They took a guy who had pitched barely 50 innings over three years and made him pitch 35 innings in the second half of the season last year.
And he got injured? Wow, who could have guessed it?
Holy cow.
whyhay: At a certain point the guy has to ply his trade. He’s almost 31 and has 90 innings pitched in MLB. The Yankees didn’t slag him, his arm couldn’t handle throwing pitches. I wish him the best because he has talent when healthy, but he’s gonna be out until 2027..
The most common source of injury in all athletes is overuse. Almost every Yankee pitcher that is on some sort of injury list got there by being overused. As soon as Cole was available last year, he was immediately put into the rotation and throwing 100+ pitches in some of his starts. Gil was in the rotation all season throwing way more innings than ever before, until he broke down. Cortes was overworked (almost 3 times the innings as the year before) and wisely traded so he could crash out on another team. Many bullpen arms get tossed into games repeatedly until their bodies break down and they disappear onto the injured list. Weaver, Cousins, Hamilton, all collapsed. Hill will tumble down any day now. Yarbrough is burning out. I can just imagine what they will do to Devin Williams. The guy’s never pitched 61 innings in a year but they will likely ask him to pitch 70 innings and then wonder what happened. It’s no accident that they constantly bounce pitchers back and forth to get innings here and there. But they don’t do it to avoid misusing their more talented pitchers. This is incomprehensible. Yankee Stadium is essentially a sausage factory. Ground up pitchers encased in intestinal fortitude. Get out there and throw your arm out buddy, we’re paying you!
I think you’re too close to the situation to be objective. Bringing up Cole is crazy by the way… He was signed to be a horse, and you ride those guys. The Yankees have rest plans for the entire team and had been heavily criticized as recently as last year for resting their lineup players too often.
Cortes was literally nothing when the Yankees helped him unlock the next level, he owes his last couple of years in MLB to the Yankees, same with Weaver. Boone may ride his “circle of trust guys” a bit but it’s not egregious. I can’t think of one dude who left and said they abused me or overused me. Cousins is a 30 year old with 90 innings for a reason; he’s been hurt, including a long injury to his UCL that he did PRP and rehab to overcome. It’s not the Yankees’ fault that he couldn’t even throw an MLB pitch this year due to the UCL injury he’s been carrying since his Milwaukee days.
Of course no one’s going to complain of overuse! They think they’re indestructible.
Shame. Cousins had done a solid job in 2024. Could have used him with the big league arms being taxed right now.
Pretty much missed the first 3 months last year. He was worked pretty hard thereafter.
UCLs are dropping like flies of late
Bring back TONK!