Blue Jays pitching prospect Eric Pardinho underwent Tommy John surgery earlier today and will miss the entire 2020 season as a result, tweets Baseball America’s Ben Badler. Toronto signed Brazilian-born righty for a $1.4MM bonus back in 2017.
It’s a discouraging blow for Pardinho, who missed much of the 2019 season due to elbow troubles but was able to avoid going under the knife. Pardinho, who entered the 2019 season as one of the game’s Top 100 prospects according to both Baseball America and MLB.com, was limited to just 37 2/3 frames this past season. He did, however, post a sterling 2.15 ERA with a 35-to-16 K/BB ratio when healthy enough to pitch.
Pardinho is just 19 years of age and has yet to pitch beyond Class-A, but the news of surgery on the heels of an injury-plagued 2019 campaign means that the highly touted righty will lose nearly two full years of development. He’ll return for the 2021 season, assuming his recovery goes well, which will prove to be a pivotal year; Pardinho will need to be added to the Jays’ 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft in the 2021-22 offseason.
