Astros right-hander JP France will undergo surgery on his throwing shoulder, according to his agent Nate Heisler of Klutch Sports (X link). Details of the procedure, which will be performed by noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. Keith Meister, aren’t clear. France will miss the rest of the 2024 season.
It doesn’t come as a huge surprise. France last pitched in a Triple-A game on April 30 because of the shoulder injury. He’d ramped up to long toss as he tried to rehab. General manager Dana Brown said over the weekend that France had a setback and no longer had a clear timeline for a return.
This will be a nearly completely lost season for the 29-year-old. France opened the year in Houston’s big league rotation. He was tagged for a 7.46 ERA across 25 1/3 innings spanning five starts. The Astros optioned him to Triple-A Sugar Land in hopes of getting him back on track. France only made it through one outing before the injury.
It’s another hit to an Astro rotation that has been torn apart. Houston lost José Urquidy and Cristian Javier to Tommy John procedures. They’ve been without Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers Jr. as they rehab from 2023 surgeries. Justin Verlander has had a pair of injured list stints. He’s on the 15-day IL with neck discomfort. In part because of the injuries, the Astros hurried last year’s third-round pick Jake Bloss to the majors. Bloss left his MLB debut with shoulder soreness and went on the IL himself, though that’s expected to be a fairly brief absence.
France struggled during the first month of the season, but he entered the year as a key depth arm. He’d emerged as a somewhat surprising contributor as a 28-year-old rookie. France logged 136 1/3 frames with a 3.83 earned run average during his debut campaign. While he had a pedestrian 17.4% strikeout rate, he showed good control and did a solid job avoiding hard contact.
Since the injury occurred after he was optioned, France has spent the last couple months on the Triple-A injured list. He’s not entitled to a major league salary or service time while he’s on the minor league IL. The Astros could recall him and place him on the MLB 60-day injured list if they want to open a 40-man roster spot (at which point France would be paid at the major league minimum rate). The Astros would need to reinstate him onto the 40-man over the offseason or put him on waivers.
Looks like France isn’t feeling tres bien. Suits that cheating organization well
You cheated loser!!
I question your morals.
Sucks when a player has already had more than a cup of coffee with an org and would probably be in their rotation and you happen get hurt in the minors vs bigs and get paid way less for who knows how long because of something fairly arbitrary like *where* you got hurt pitching for an org. If he got called up for even a spot start and got hurt, he’d be getting paid big league salary for that time, right?
Waldrep for Atlanta made his injury known before he got sent down and frankly if I understand it correctly, that’s kind of a savvy move.
Just call him up and then DL him. Would go a long way towards showing that the Astro’s are trying to have class and are trying to redeem themselves.
You mean the org that was still paying minor league players through all of covid and then giving them furnished apartments the year after?
They were the first team to put their minor league players in furnished apartments, and long before it was a trendy topic. But, it’s the Astros, so no one will talk about it. It’s not something they can whine and cry about.
It’s time to speak up why the pitching injuries. There are many reasons why but instead of just saying that let’s eliminate ONE AT A TIME instead of just saying there are many reasons.
The CUTTER has been thrown more than ever the last few years and that CUTTER has a BAD TILT. Any pitch that is OFF CENTER or has a BAD TILT will be vulnerable on the arm. Much more than the fastball.
The Pitch design people and the ones running these so called pitching labs at the baseball schools must be held accountable. They like trial and error and if your a serious pitcher RUN from these idiots. They don’t care, they aren’t going to tell they are responsible for you being the guinea pig.
I don’t think you understand the pitchers. They know the cost. They also know the rewards. They make more money in a year than the vast majority of people will ever make. What’s a few surgeries along the way in return for millions?
I’m in touch with MLB personnel, they want to understand how the sweeper and gyro slider is thrown, the grip, tilt and wrist action and every technique needed to make it safe and devastating.
The cutter and morphed cutter is the problem with the bad tilt.
The Owners want to keep their pitchers healthy and want to understand everything about the cutter and the RB Football slider which is the Sweeper and gyro slider.
Of course they want a safer way. The first priority is still winning and making the largest salary possible. The goals are at odds at this point in time.
Everybody now:”Boom , Boom, Boom, another one bites the dust.”
France threw the cutter, that cutter has a bad tilt, Cutter pitchers are going down like flies. So are the ones throwing the sweeper, I can’t get into what they are doing cause nobody want’s to give credit where due, so those have to keep going on.
Major League pitchers are becoming an endangered species. Soon they will go the way of the dodo bird.
Astros should sign Roger Clemens, he looked pretty spry for a 60-year-old for the Savanah Bananas. Might have to start looking at bringing these old-timers while the baseball world figures out what to do with these pitchers.
It’s not hard to figure out why some of the pitching injuries. It’s not hard to figure out if your off center or have a bad tilt you eventually are going to get cut on.
If you throw a 100 pitches and are doing tubing or arm exercises the NEXT DAY you have a hole in your head.
They are absolutely on the next day getting treatment and doing arm mobility exercises to eliminate the build up of lactic acid due to the stresses of prior day’s pitching.
I never heard of an arm getting hurt by resting it.
If I throw a 100 pitches I’m not touching a ball until the 3rd day and my arm will be fine. I won’t lose any velocity, the arm is already built up.
A month or two before the season you build the arm up. Once it’s built up a starter will throw a 100 pitches and rest is the best thing for it. There’s been pitchers since the beginning of baseball that never heard of lactic acid, just like they never heard of pronation and supination, NONE of that is needed to be a great or long lasting pitcher.
Well, good for you but professional pitchers have in-between starts routines managed by other professionals.
Maybe that’s part of the problem then.
Once the arm is built up, rest CAN’T hurt the arm.
Nobody knows how your arm feels better than you.
Pitchers since the beginning of baseball threw until their arm got tired, some that was 80 pitches others it was 150 pitches.
Everyone’s different.
If a pitcher needs someone to tell them how to stay healthy they are already screwed. You throw when your arm feels good and you throw until if feels tired. Nobody can tell you that.
So the arm get’s injured if the pitcher rest’s it the next day! LOL
What a stupid comment you made.
You answer the arm gets injured it the lactic acid builds up and it’s not treated. That’s a new level of stupid.
There you go that’s ONE of the reasons they are getting injured.
When an arm is stressed it needs rest.
NOBODY ever got hurt resting their arm. LOL
MLB doesn’t want to ask the injured pitchers the grip, tilt and wrist action of their pitches because then they would understand the problem pitch which is the cutter.
ML pitchers used to throw over 140 pitches a game, they rest it for a full 3 days, they didn’t care about lactic acid build up! LOL
ALL the TRAINERS out there, STOP the BS with the science part.
Pitchers need to know the correct, Grip, Tilt and Wrist action of a pitch, not go to a Driveline and do trial and error on a pitch design pitch that is nonsense. Pitchers since the beginning of baseball played with grips and tilts. They didn’t need a trainer or someone talking about pitch design. Pitch design NEVER created any pitch. That’s a fact.
Someone on here just said after throwing a 100 pitches the pitchers shouldn’t rest the arm the next day, they need the lactic acid to be worked out. LOL
If I throw a 100 pitches and some idiot recommends I work the lactic acid the next day, I would tell him to take a hike. These trainers and pitch designers are not in the best interest of the pitcher. I don’t here any pitch designers telling anyone sorry we used you as a guinea pig with that bad tilt on the cutter or slider.
Another gut punch for Astros fans. But hey, they’re hot right now and looking every bit like the contender we expected.
Wow someone has been drinking