6:24pm: Bard told the Colorado beat that he’ll rehab from the surgery before deciding next year whether he wants to continue his playing career (X link via Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post).
5:05pm: Rockies right-hander Daniel Bard will require surgery on the flexor tendon in his throwing arm and will miss the rest of the season. Thomas Harding of MLB.com was among those to relay the news. Bard is already on the 15-day injured list after undergoing an arthroscopic knee procedure in February but he’ll now be destined for the 60-day IL whenever the Rockies need his roster spot for someone else.
It’s an incredibly unfortunate development for both the pitcher and the team. Bard, 39 in June, is in the second season of a two-year, $19MM extension he signed with the Rockies, a pact that looks increasingly regrettable. Bard saw his previous anxiety and control problems return last year as he walked 21.1% of batters faced and saw his earned run average balloon to 4.56. He’ll now be on the shelf for the entire second half of that deal.
Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but there were reasons that contract was eyebrow-raising even at the time. Bard pitched for the Red Sox from 2009 to 2013 and looked like a dominant reliever at times before a case of the yips sent him out into the wilderness. He walked 15.5% of batters faced in 2012 then only tossed one inning in the majors in 2013.
From 2014 to 2017, he settled for minor league deals with the Cardinals, Mets and Rangers but the control problems followed him to all those stops. Over that period, he logged 13 innings on the farm but walked a massive 44.7% of batters faced and posted 24.23 ERA.
He signed a minor league deal with the Rockies prior to 2020 and was able to mount an incredible comeback. He got back to the big leagues with Colorado and posted a 3.65 ERA over his 23 appearances, keeping his walk rate down to 9.4% while striking out 25.5% of opponents. His ERA ticked up to 5.21 in 2021 but he dropped it all the way to 1.79 the year after. In that 2022 season, he struck out 28.2% of batters faced, walked 10.2% of them and got grounders on 51.7% of balls in play. He also did that in high-leverage situations, racking up 34 saves for Colorado.
It was right around that year’s trade deadline that the Rockies signed Bard to the aforementioned extension. Given Bard’s volatile career and the fact he was a 37-year-old impending free agent on a non-competitive club, there was an argument for the Rockies to put him on the trading block and grab whatever young talent they could. Instead, they doubled down on their relationship with Bard by extending it for another two seasons. But as mentioned, his struggles returned last year and now 2024 will go down as a total loss. Once transferred to the 60-day IL, he’ll spend the rest of the year there and become a free agent again this coming winter.
Dude needs to get off steroids
Why would that cause him to get hurt all the time? Or are you just trying and failing to be clever?
I’d Bard didn’t have bad luck he’d have none at all.
I had this surgery a year ago. It’s no big deal.
Yeah, missing the entire season is no big deal at all.
I meant to convey it was no big deal for me. With regard to Bard, yeah, this isn’t good.
Damn gotta feel for him
I am glad that Bard had really successful 2022 and 2023. His 2009 to 2011 were dominant with the Red Sox then he just lost it and could not find the strike zone. After struggling for ten years, he finally made good. That said, you really wonder if he will come back to MLB after another extended time off.
I’m confused – were all flexor tendon surgeries categorized as Tommy John surgery before, or are flexor tendons tears on a massive rise?
Or are they trying to make it seem like not as many pitchers are having Tommy John?
It’s a repair versus a replacement.
I thought the repair was a brace procedure?
Two different body parts. Flexor tendon, in forearm, is tendon repair. UCL, a ligament, is in the elbow. The UCL is the ligament on which the brace is placed for stability. The one in this article is the flexor tendon. The injuries two are often related.
At his age this is probably the end of the road
Time to hang it up. Almost 40. Adult baseball league should do him right
To me it sounds like this is the end for him but he wants surgery and rehab to be paid for by his team. So he will rehab and then call it quits.
I would do that too, club pays for it plus you get the best experts doing it
i blame the pitch clock
and ohtani
and OJ
OJ was in good health before the pitch clock
But remember with OJ the glove didn’t fit so he was acquit.
We’re fielding calls. We’ve got some players who are desirable and I can’t speak to it, but I’ll give you some perspective. Team A might call on one of our players and their front office might say, “We like this guy.” And our front office will say, “Well, yeah, he’s a good player, you should be on that player.” But this happens a little bit, too. “Hey, you guys have a Range Rover. We’ll take your Range Rover and we’ll give you our Honda Accord.” And teams expect you to do that. Why would we do that? “How could you not trade your Range Rover?” Because we might try to keep our Range Rover! Rather than trade it for your Subaru!
@jimthegoat,
We’re in the market for a car for our kids. What are you asking, and do you want a current CarFax report on the Range Rover?
Why do you get a pending if you comment the names of President #45 or #46?
Because neither of them are relevant to baseball and mentioning either one always turns into a dumpster fire of comments. Literally zero reason to ever mention them on this site.
Because this is a baseball forum and they don’t need to be mentioned here. There are plenty of other sites around if you want to discuss politics.
Why does gasoline vapor explode when near an open flame?
Flexor tendon injuries typically occur from a cut on the palm side of your fingers, hand, wrist, or forearm. Flexor tendons can also be injured when a finger or thumb is violently pulled away from you while you are attempting to grasp something, such as the jersey of an opposing player in sports.
– Stop trying to cut vegetables and pulling on the jersey of the players on the opposing team!
That’s funny. The top joint of one of my fingers doesn’t bend. Did it 35 years ago. Got caught in a jersey as I fell off a rugby league player I was trying to tackle. Who knew I wasn’t alone.
That extension Colorado gave him looked bad at the time. They should’ve traded him at the 22 deadline for as many lotto tickets, as they could get.
Methinks he has thrown his last inning for Colorado.
Somewhat poetic end to career. ?
Pitch ???
And the tragic career of Daniel Bard continues. Always on the bad break side of things. Hope he finds a way back.
Average Rockies signing
It would save space if MLBTR listed all UCL, elbow brace, teres major and shoulder surgeries in list form in one post daily.
I wish Baseball Reference had an injury category as well.
I Emailed them and they told me they were thinking about it.
Fangraphs has an injury report under their RosterResource section, not sure if it’s helpful here.
Thanks bud – I’ll check it out.
Actually at this point it might be easier to compile a list of all players who haven’t had major surgery yet this month.
I remember the hype when he was coming up with the Red Sox. Another what could have been story.
The Red Sox messed up that whole situation trying to make him a starter.
Truth
That extension would have been a reasonable bet at half the price (much like the one with Blackmon this year). But it made no sense at that price point, and now is a total waste.
Rockies don’t have enough margin to waste money like that.
This didn’t hurt him, the Red Sox did long ago
Another pitching injury?!?!??!?!
He’ll be fine. Did what most of us can only dream bout, played mlb baseball and was fortunate to have had big payday especially w/all the ups n downs in his career. Enjoy the rest of your Life.