The Rockies’ injury-plagued season has extended into the club’s farm system, as MLB.com’s Thomas Harding (via Twitter) reports that pitching prospects Gabriel Hughes, Jackson Cox, and Jordy Vargas will all undergo Tommy John surgeries this week. Dr. Keith Meister will perform all of the procedures, as well as the previously reported TJ surgery for veteran righy-hander Antonio Senzatela.
It’s a brutal setback for the three youngsters, all ranked by MLB Pipeline among the Rockies’ top 12 overall prospects, and Pipeline lists the trios as three of Colorado’s top four pitching prospects. Hughes was the 10th overall pick of the 2022 draft, Cox was a second-round pick in that same draft, and the 19-year-old Vargas was an international signing in 2021. Hughes was the furthest along of the trio since he made his Double-A debut this season, but now all three pitchers have been dealt a big setback in their young careers. Given the usual recovery timeline for Tommy John procedures, there’s a chance any of Hughes, Cox, or Vargas might be able to return late in the 2024 campaign, but it is likelier that the right-handers will all be sidelined until 2025.
More from around the National League…
- Most of the trade speculation about Cardinals pitching has focused on Jack Flaherty and Jordan Montgomery, but Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that an unknown American League club has considered acquiring Steven Matz. The mystery team would use Matz as “rotation insurance or bullpen upgrade.” Matz is still owed the remainder of his $10MM salary for 2023 as well as $24MM in 2024-25, and it seems like the Cardinals would have to eat a good chunk of that money to accommodate a deal. Matz has struggled in both years of his original four-year, $44MM contract with St. Louis, but after losing his rotation job earlier this season, he has pitched considerably better since a move to the bullpen and a recent return to the starting five. Matz has a 2.93 ERA over his last 30 2/3 innings and 11 appearances.
- Jesse Winker had a big pinch-hit single in the ninth inning of the Brewers’ 3-2 win over the Reds tonight. It was a nice moment within what has been a very rough season for Winker, who entered Monday hitting only .194/.316/.242 over 196 plate appearances. These struggles have led to a reduced role, as manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) “to this point [Winker] hasn’t given us production out of that spot….I think he understands it and just tries to be ready for an at-bat later in the day.” The hope is that the move will “let him work on some things and make some adjustments,” with Winker perhaps being able to earn his way back into regular at-bats. Winker was already limited to facing right-handed pitching due to his extreme splits, but he has only a .557 OPS against righties this season.
- Mets pitching prospect Calvin Ziegler isn’t expected to pitch in 2023 after suffering a torn right quad, according to Mike Mayer of Metsmerized (Twitter link). 2023 becomes an entirely lost season for the 20-year-old, who had yet to pitch this year due to an elbow surgery to remove bone spurs. Ziegler was the Mets’ second-round pick (46th overall) in the 2021 draft, with MLB Pipeline ranking him seventh in New York’s farm system and Baseball America ranking him 12th. The right-hander’s 60-grade fastball and curveball has led to a lot of strikeouts, but Ziegler has had a lot of problems in reducing walks. Unfortunately, he’ll now face another long layoff before he can continue his development.
Someone please take Matz
Sure… Just throw in that HoF 1st baseman, Montgomery/Flaherty, and Hicks/Hesley, and any team would. Seriously, though, I can see a deal of him and a good reliever with some cash this year for a low A catcher hitting .100/.150/.200
Deal says basically we eat up some cash and they want him dude. No need to waste value of a solid return for any of our relievers up in FA as well as Monty and Flaherty in case you don’t get it pitching is a commodity for like 80% of the league that still thinks they have a chance. Also would think your name would easily get it considering I can see Texas going after pitching including gulp Lance Lynn lol may want to see his stats and than you will probably delete your comment. Trust me we don’t even care about a prospect just need to get rid of him. Once again like Mike Leake dumpster diving and paying a team two years to pitch for them although I don’t see Matz improve like Leake did somewhat
Lance Lynn > Martin Perez
ERA is not good for predicting the future. I was saying in general for other teams, though I guess maybe the prospect would have to be better for either starter and definitely for a reliever.
his SIERA is 3.88
Deja vu right Mike Leake wish Mo saw the true cost of dumpster diving get us paying a team two years for them. Rather we get great pitchers and we keep them I think Lohse was the last great FA pitcher but I think we had him for half a season before he signed maybe either or Carpenter we don’t have a great track record of signing long term pitchers
I’d give $5m to a club to take Matz off our hands. Yet another poor free agent add by Mo.
It would have to be more along the lines of $20 MM.
Perhaps Matz is destined to become a good reliever a la Andrew Miller and others.
I appreciate your positive comment Blue Baron
Wow the Rockies got sacked with a ton of injured young pitching prospects. That is just terrible news…
Yeah that is kind of terrible for them.
Imagine having to perform 4 Tommy John surgeries in a week. That must be exhausting
Be he’s loving the paycheck
The procedure is only 60-90 operative minutes. He’s loving the checks and his feet are doing just fine.
Set up the conveyor belt. Since they are getting 4, is the fifth one free?
[Bob Nutting’s ears perk up]
Practice makes perfect.
Can anyone majors or minors stay healthy this year?
Mystery team. Steven Matz
Tell me more…..you have my attention……
Bet it’s the rays or blue jays each of them are trying to pad up pitching blue jays maybe more since they have a decent track record working with him
Jays could make sense. He pitched well for them once upon a time.
Matz truly hasn’t been that bad his FIP us under 4. But he has seemed to give up runs at the wrong time ever since he was signed. Reminds me of Leake. At least he didn’t cost as much.
Honestly Matz just has one bad inning but will shut them down the rest of the time…problem is that one bad inning is 5 runs and 50 pitches lol then he can’t go past five innings and taxes the bullpen
Probably a CPBL team.
If I were guessing the mystery team for Matz it would be Toronto. He pitched very well for them before coming to St Louis. He could very well pick up where he left off. That’s fairly reasonable risk to take from Toronto perspective.
If St Louis took on the remainder of Ryu’s money this year (pro-rated $20 million) along with an underachieving Yimi Garcia (who holds a team option for 2024) at $5.5 million, the Bluejays might take on a good deal of Matz contract
The Blue Jays could be that American League team that’s interested in Matz. He had a good year for them a couple of years ago. Maybe reuniting him with pitching coach Pete Walker would help him. He can’t be any worse than Mitch White has been.
Maybe the Jays, but they have Ryu returning either this series in LA this week but more likely over the weekend vs. the Angels. I’d say the “mystery team” is more likely TB or Baltimore than Toronto, both are looking for pitching help.
I see your point, however, I think those teams are going to aim higher than Matz in regards to finding a rental player.
Another reason I believe Toronto is the mystery team is their familiarity with Matz already. Plus, if he regains his 2021 form, he’ll be more valuable than Ryu who’s coming back from TJS, who’s also an impending free agent at seasons end.
Ryu seems like the perfect candidate to audition for the Cardinals. If he pitches decent, he would definitely get a contract for 2024. If Matz returns to form, the Jay’s have an affordable starter for 2 more years. Everyone wins.
Anyone think the Matz Mystery Team isn’t Boston?
Winker, Tyler Black and Garrett Mitchell to the Tigers for Erod, Andy Ibanez and minor league pitching (Brant Hurter?, Wilmer Flores?). Mitchell is out so no impact on Brewers roster this year, besides clearing payroll and playing time with Winker gone. Erod is a massive upgrade over Rea, they get a minor league pitcher for later and Ibanez can play 3B or fill in where needed. Tigers get a Harris type player in Black (more walks than K’s) and a good young OF in Mitchell.
Tigers need 3B and C. They have no need of Winker.
Rogers and Dingler seem like they should be fine for catcher fir the next few years.
The Brewers top minor league/some mlb talent is seemingly untouchable except for maybe Turang at this point, the upside with guys like Wiemer, Mitchell, Churio, Frelick, Black, Quero, Misiorowski, Uribe puts the Brewers in a fantastic position to compete but still transition from guys in the final years of arbitration to these younger players while still remaining competitive, it is possible of course however it seems unlikely Turang/Gasser would be involved in any deals however they still have several solid prospects/players rebuilding teams would covet, prospect like Andrews, Velario, Brown jr, Moore, Lara, Small and Cam Robinson (although I’m hoping they keep him) this is just a great time to be a baseball fan in WI and as long as the Crew can negotiate an adequate contract that keeps the glue guy Craig Counsell around for the foreseeable future, well things are looking great until 2030, when the lease agreement expires and whatever bull crap these billionaires come up with but, at least the Crew should be trotting out a young, competitive and exciting team with a franchise Icon at the helm so that should give those fighting to keep the Brewers in WI just that, a solid fighters chance at minimum! Also wouldn’t at all be surprised to see the Crew dealing from the pool of players that’ve had significant MLB success in the recent past yet are struggling/injured this year but remain valuable because of their recent successes as well as years of team control remaining, so guys like Tellez and Urias come to mind as well as Keston Hiura, although I’m also hoping they keep him as he’s still only 26 and has the ceiling/hitting and power potential few prospects ever at ANY time possess and I think in 2019 his instant success and defensive struggles (along with family health issues) caused him to feel stress/pressure he just wasn’t prepared for but the guys lifetime numbers at AAA as well as 19hr in 80 games at the MLB level in 2019 shows he has absolutely absurd potential and I firmly believe he can be average in the corner outfield spots particularly left and grow into a slightly above average defender at first (if undersized) due to his solid glove because people can say what they want about Kestons defense but I doubt many have watched him play as much as I have and from what I’ve seen he has the fantastic hand/eye coordination (as evidenced by his hit/power tools) and if he can get his glove in the neighborhood the ball would usually stick, it is of course his throwing arm and strength isn’t so much the problem as it is just more than likely mechanics as well as previous elbow injuries sustained in college and even potentially high school rendering his development in that area far from complete, but with the upside he’s always shown it’s funny to think that a guy could strikeout over 30% of his at bats and still be an elite offensive player but that’s Keston Hiura and if it’s not obvious enough I hope the Brewers see his development through and don’t let some other team steal his 40+hr per year offensive upside!
Longest paragraph ever!
Rea has been really good as a 5th/6th starter this year. MKE is getting Woodruff back soon and Miley back in mid August, that gives them plenty of SP for the stretch run. If they’re going to trade young talent like Mitchell and Black, its most likely going to be for a DH/1B/3B.
Craig Counsell talking plain about Jesse Winker. Can’t even hit right handers now. Last nights big hit is false hope.
Matz is a 3 or 4 starter and being paid pretty much league average for that role. Watching the Cards this year you could say two things. 1) If he would have gotten some early run support in any of his starts he’d at least be a .500 pitcher. 2) How much of the Willson Contreras pitch calling effect Matz’s effectiveness as all the other starters appear to moan about? If the Cards are picking up salary then I’m smelling blood in the water and picking up the phone.
If you think he deserved to be a .500 pitcher this year you didn’t watch him in April and May. He was (and still is) barely averaging 5 innings a start. I don’t know that he’s registered a quality start the entire time that he’s been a Cardinal. He had a WHIP of 1.7 as a starter his first 2 months of the year. He’s been pitching better and since I’m a Cardinal fan I obviously want him to improve but in no way does he deserve to be a .500 pitcher.
Since the end of his rookie season Matz has a 4.62 ERA. That isn’t 3-4 material.
You must really be hard up if you think you can rely on Matz as an upgrade.
Cards should have kept gomber and sent other players to the Rockies. And not signed matz
So has the pitch clock increased the number of UCL injuries this season? Will MLB investigate the number of players at the Major and Minor league levels that have been injured or does that hold them liable if it in fact is true.
Might be the best/most insightful and thought out comment I’ve ever read on mlbtr, nice!
It’s not true, no matter how often you comment your made-up silliness
Hey Jon, if you pay us we will take Matz off your hands. Deal? Yes, that is how the trade deadline will go. The next 2-3 years are going to be rough. Hopefully we come out of it with an exciting team around ‘26 or ‘27.
Cut bait with Winker now! Bring up Hiura (or even Naquin or Urias) All are better than Winker. And Do not mortgage brewers farm for some marginal upgrade or bounce back candidate. Stand pat. Pitching reinforcements on their way back.
Winker, like Colten Wong, just keeps going from bad to worse. At this point I couldn’t even see the Reds taking him back even if they had a crystal ball assuring them he’ll return to his form of 3 years ago. At the trajectory he’s on he’ll be lucky to catch on with an Asian team next year. I agree with you – just cut him loose.
Winker – .190
Reducing playing time?
Managerial genius!
What do you know.
Winker is suffering a back injury.
We just can’t catch a break, ever.
All the more reason for him not to play!