Cubs reliever Adbert Alzolay is going to undergo surgery on his injured arm, tweets Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic. The team is still sorting out the details of the procedure, but it’s discouraging news for a pitcher who has been out for a few months with a flexor strain.
Alzolay has battled arm issues over the last three seasons. He lost almost all of the 2022 campaign to a shoulder strain. The righty missed a few weeks last September with a seemingly minor forearm strain, though the Cubs felt comfortable enough with his status to reinstate him for the last couple days of the season.
In the interim, Alzolay broke through as arguably Chicago’s best reliever. He worked to a 2.67 ERA across 64 innings last season. The Venezuelan pitcher established himself as the Cubs’ closer, saving 22 games in 25 attempts. He struck out 26.5% of batters faced against a meager 5.1% walk rate.
The Cubs were counting on Alzolay to anchor their bullpen again this season. That didn’t come to pass. He got out to a terrible start to the year, surrendering 13 runs (nine earned) over 17 1/3 innings. Opponents connected on six homers while his strikeout rate dropped by more than nine percentage points. Alzolay blew five leads while only successfully protecting four saves and one hold. His velocity was only marginally below last season’s levels and there’s no indication he was pitching through any kind of discomfort until reporting forearm soreness on May 13.
Chicago diagnosed Alzolay’s injury as a flexor strain. They shut him down entirely for a few weeks and transferred him to the 60-day injured list. Alzolay began ramping up a couple weeks ago and started a rehab stint with Triple-A Iowa in late July. He came out of his third rehab appearance after sustaining a setback.
The Cubs figure to provide more detail on the procedure and Alzolay’s timeline next week. An unspecified arm surgery looks as if it may impact his availability for the start of next season. If he requires any kind of ligament repair, it could put his entire ’25 campaign in jeopardy. The 29-year-old is making $2.11MM this season in his first year of arbitration. He’ll be in line for a similar salary in ’25 assuming the Cubs tender him a contract. He’s on track for free agency after the 2026 campaign.
Guy seemed to have a good future. Wish him the best in his recovery (despite playing for a division rival).
The White Sox may be the worst team in baseball right now, but we still have ensured a better outcome than the Cubs. White Sox didn’t flinch and admitted the prior rebuild was a failure, and we are already well into our next rebuild. ….. Cubs farm system pretty much has no major league arms left. Why delay the inevitable rebuild? Cubs are a mess right now.
Cade Horton, Ben Brown, Caleb Killian, etc.
Like I said. Cubs farm system is severely lacking pitching. Ben Brown??? LMAO! Caleb Killian?? You got to be kidding … right?? If you can’t afford to pay Justin Steele …. And don’t have much by way of quality arms in the minors …… let alone any bats ….. Why are you not rebuilding??? If you ain’t got kids, and ain’t trying to write checks …. What exactly are the Cubs doing???
Jackson Hollidays kid will be president by the time the White Sox are relevant again.
I hope he names his son Andrew Jackson Holliday just for reason
Someone get this guy a reality check.
Name should be Very Dumb.
Reality check??? What exactly is the Cubs path to contention?? Parades? Last place team that lacks quality prospects. You guys gotta stop lying to yourselves about where your team is. The team you thought you had going into the season turned out to be complete garbage. Ya’ll trying to run this garbage back on the field next year??? If you ain’t writing checks, and ain’t got no kids, what exactly are you doing?
Your team still employs broken down Moncada, have no future 2B, will likely trade Crochet and Robert for a subscription of Krispy Kreme donuts and still have Geraldo Reinsdorf as your manager.
Sit this one out champ. I’ve seen you post on nba too and you’re also the same guy who said Boston will lose to Miami in the first round LMAO.
Congrats on your banner for the upcoming 125th anniversary. “Most losses in MLB history with 126”.
You’re like the only “Sox fan” who is worrying about the cubs rather than your broke organization refusing to extend actual franchise caliber players.
You aren’t just Very Barry, you are Very Scary bad at discussing baseball. So you think the Sox are well on their way? They wish they had the farm the Cubs have. Sox won’t contend again until 2030 and once Jerry dies, hi kids are going to sell the team and move them out of town. Good bye White Sox! You won’t be missed.
Hey, at least you got one thing going for you – you’re the best…at losing!
Cubs farm system is not healthy right now …. And your team is in last place ….. Reality check …. Time for a rebuild. …. If you don’t have kids, and ain’t trying to write fat checks …. What exactly are you doing??
17 straight losses….
It’s always good to know when Sox fans have the Cubs on their mind.
@Barry The White Sox won’t be competitive for another 5 years, maybe more. Outside of Crochet, who do you have?
We understand that we do not have enough to build a contender. Crochet and even Luis Robert will be beyond our financial $$$ reach by the time we have real players again. A correct rebuild involves stripping it all away. Understand, when you have a great deal of depth in the farm system, you can acquire pretty much whatever squad you want. I can name 20 teams right now that are willing to listen to offers on pretty much EVERY player on their roster.
How would you know what a correct rebuild is as a White Sox fan? If you are going by Theo’s playbook, that playbook is expired and doesn’t work anymore. If you are going by Rick Hann’s playbook… oh wait…
Name those teams!
Who cares about the White Sox?
Very Wrong.
Corn Trollio. Cubs have a top 3 farm system. White Sox have the worst record and can’t even pick in the top 10. Not to mention their farm is awful.
First team to ever have 80 losses by the end of July.
Top 3 farm system??? Isn’t this the same system that coming into the season had Pete Crow-Armstrong as their top prospect?? Has Pete actually gotten a hit yet?? You guys didn’t even have enough for Erick Fedde. Stop lying to yourselves.
Erick Fedde? You mean the guy you gave away for basically nothing? Lmao. Then again, I feel bad because you guys are potentially the worst team in MLB history
We got the haul we wanted for Fedde. We are targeting 18 and 19 year-old kids. It’s all about building a great deal of depth in the system. You can trade kids for whatever you want. This is the new way forward.
Man, I’m glad they didn’t trade for Fedde now. He’s getting crushed by the Cubs lmao
Number one you didn’t get a haul for Fedde. You got next to nothing for Pham, Fedde and Kopech for three middle talent prospects. The Sox should have gotten a haul for those guys. They should have gotten at least 1 guy each for Pham and Kopech and 3 for Fedde so you got squat while the Dodgers and Cards got fat. You had a guy who throws 100 for 5 years and your crap pitching coaches couldn’t figure out what to do with him so spare me your ridiculous nonsense. Yep Very Dumb sums it up.
Sounds like some sort of TJ surgery. Whether it’s the whole thing or just the brace means he’s gone until 2026. doubtful he ever pitches for the Cubs again. Hoping for the best, Expecting the worst.
This guy was the reason Jed didn’t go out and get a closer in the offseason but even us fans knew better than to rely on him. And to think Jed will have another year to continue to put another disappointing team on the field. Sheesh!
Will he though? Lot of talk going around he might not. He doesn’t get fired I hope he just moves up. He seems to be a competent executive. But what the Cubs need is a savvy GM to put the last pieces together and a guy who knows Tax Management. All they really need now is an established closer and a good catcher. They also need some better bench pieces so that’s pretty light lifting and they’ll have the money to do that if they spend wisely. There’s enough pitching and obviously Sasaki would be a huge get depending on the cost. Is Hawkins that guy? I’ve seen no indication he is anything of the sort.
Your comments usually make sense and are thought provoking at times. But in this case a hard no to keeping Jed and moving him up. If he goes he goes. Period. If you keep Jed around it’s likely another situation like the White Sox had with Kenny and Rick. Hire a new President of Baseball Ops. Then let that individual begin the process of hiring a GM. A fresh start is needed with the Cubs.
It’s pretty simple really. Jed’s title is POBO. That means he over sees everything. Cubs have lost serious Executive talent. The League is littered with them and he just keeps finding great replacements. Scott Harris- Tigers, Breslow-Red Sox, And another one I forget is with Stearns and the Mets. He finds Kantrovinz and Banner and they keep rolling on. Minors all have solid coaching and relationships with everybody and their Japanese and Foreign scouts are as good as it gets. Jed should stay in his lane and sit on top and over see. What he’s bad at is giving up the GM part which he’s not very good at. Where he makes a mess is in FA, Contracts, and bringing talent to the subtle areas-Bullpen and bench. That’s why he hired Hawkins a lackey to take the title and that Jed can use as a foil. He needs to do what he’s good at. And hire somebody who’s not a lackey to do what he’s bad at. He’s good at his job as far as it goes. But we need a guy who can manage the Tax and piece together the MLB roster because he has pets he just can’t see are bad.
Should’ve did this when he was transferred from the 15 day to the 60 day IL