The Red Sox announced that pitcher Anthony Varvaro has been returned to the club. The right-hander was designated for assignment by the Red Sox in late April and claimed off waivers by the Cubs days later.
Varvaro, it turns out, has a torn right flexor tendon and will undergo surgery Tuesday ending his season, reports Cormac Gordon of the Staten Island Advance.com.
“The tendon is partially torn off the bone, but the elbow is stable otherwise,” the 30-year-old told Gordon. “I was worried I might need another Tommy John surgery. That’s not the case. This is the best possible outcome.”
Rehabilitation is expected to last six months, so Varvaro could resume throwing in November. The Red Sox say they were unaware of how severe the injury was, so both clubs agreed that it “would be appropriate to return Varvaro to the Red Sox for placement on the disabled list in accordance with the major league rules.”
The Red Sox designated Varvaro for assignment on April 29th and the Cubs claimed him off waivers on May 3rd. Â Three days later, the Cubs DFA’d Varvaro and subsequently outrighted him.
Varvaro posted a 2.74 ERA with 6.5 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and a ground-ball rate near 48 percent with the Braves from 2012-13. With the Red Sox this year, Varvaro appeared in nine games and totaled 11 innings. The five runs he surrendered aren’t particularly concerning, but his velocity was down from an average of 92.5 mph in 2014 to 91.1 mph in 2015. That, combined with the 14 hits and six walks he yielded in his 11 innings, likely aided in his swift exit from the Boston organization.  Now, for the time being, he’s back in Boston.
Now if we could just get the Cubs to return Jon Lester…
Seriously…we saw this before in 2003 with Brandon Lyon going to the Pirates in the Scott Sauerbeck deal and coming back to the BoSox 8 days later in the Jeff Suppan deal. Lyon was also hurt at the time with a injury similar to Vavaro’s
Jon Lester has a 1.85 ERA in May.
Don’t remind me….
Do not fret too much Boston is going to end up with their ToR arm eventually. Probably will go get a couple arms to make a push this year then spend on Price or Zimmerman.
So is he having Tommy John or isn’t he??
He is having his torn right flexor tendon repaired. His UCL is fine.
Long enough to collect his 550k+ this season and be non tendered by Boston next year more than likely. Figure Boston didn’t see enough to like before, I doubt they will tender him, same amount/slight increase next winter.
Smart move by the Cubs. They didn’t want to pay his medicals and then end up non tendering him anyway after the season.. Just look at the guy as a injured rental.
Why would the Sox non-tender him? His injury explains his poor performance. If he can get back to his previous, healthy level he’s more than worth a look in spring training, especially given his historical effectiveness vs righties AND lefties.
He has a torn flexor tendon, not a torn UCL, so he’ll have surgery, just not TJ.
Thanks!
So far this year for the Cubs:
3 players have left the team to later be suspended for PED use (2) and injury
Vizcaino: traded to Braves for La Stella, few days or a week later was suspended for PEDs
McKirckam: claimed off waivers, then DFA’d again, few days later claimed again and then suspended for PEDs
And now Varvaro: claimed, DFA’d just in time and turns out to be out for most of the season
I feel like there might be one or two other players as well, either way, kind of odd
And the conspiracy grows….
(Or maybe the Cubs’ FO is just smart.)