Right-hander Jake Cousins will undergo Tommy John surgery. Manager Aaron Boone informed members of the beat today, including Brendan Kuty of The Athletic. Cousins will therefore miss the entire 2025 season and at least the first half of 2026 as well. He is already on the 60-day injured list.
The news is obviously brutal for Cousins but it’s not shocking, as his arm has been troubling him all year. When camp opened in mid-February, it was reported that Cousins was already halfway through a shutdown period of three to four weeks due to a forearm strain. When infielder/outfielder Pablo Reyes cracked the Opening Day roster, Cousins was transferred to the 60-day IL as the corresponding move, meaning he had effectively been written off for the first two months of the season.
He did start a rehab assignment in early June but that lasted for only two appearances. He was shut down from that with a setback that Boone said “seems to be a UCL injury.” A couple of days ago, Boone said that things were trending towards a Tommy John surgery, which is now the confirmed path.
That procedure usually comes with a recovery timeline of 14 to 18 months. Cousins will therefore miss all of the current campaign. He’ll have a shot at returning late in 2026 but that won’t be guaranteed.
Between the Brewers and Yankees, he has logged 90 2/3 big league innings with a 2.78 earned run average. His 14.8% walk rate is quite high but he has also punched out 32.6% of hitters and got grounders on 47.1% of balls in play.
He came into this year with his service time clock at two years and 91 days. He will collect service time while on the IL and will therefore get to 3.091 by the coming offseason. That will qualify him for arbitration for the first time. Due to the surgery, he won’t be able to raise his salary very much but he’ll be a non-tender candidate regardless. If the Yanks were to tender him a contract, he’d have to take up a 40-man spot through the winter since there’s no IL between the end of the World Series and the opening of spring training.
Photo courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images
Cousins is up for first-year arbitration this offseason. Do the Yankees do that twice before he pitches his final year of control in ’27 or non-tender him?
My bad. He’s not. They keep him.
I had a feeling this was the outcome. I know surgery is the last resort, but I feel like this could have been done sooner. Now he’s lucky to make it back late next year.
Same could be said about Adbert Alzolay. He had forearm issues last year. Could’ve had surgery in September when the Cubs were out of playoff contention. Instead they fired him and he later signed a 2 year minor league deal with the Mets .
Haha, the Cubs did not fire him, they non-tendered him. The way the system works it’s more advantageous in that situation for another team to sign him after he’s non-tendered due to the arb system’s built-in raises.
Non-tenderimg a player is basically firing them. They don’t want or need that player again so they non-tender that player making him a free agent ..
Yankees bullpen could have really used him, especially with Hamilton and Leiter Jr giving us heart palpitations every time they come in the game with a 2 or 3 run lead.
Leiter Jr. has oddly been very good in high leverage spots but has struggled in low leverage. Hamilton is a concern though and his time in the Bronx might be coming to an end soon
I think it all depends if he has command of his sinker on any given day. He throws it on 38% of his total pitches. If he can’t that day, hitters sit on his much slower splitter and the wheels fall off.
Not oddly, Leiter was similar with the Cubs, hence why he was used as the firefighter almost exclusively.
Hamilton’s walk rate is untenable. Nothing else matters until he gets that in check
We need to bring back Gulf of Tonkin!
He’ll be gone for most, if not all, of next year. They’ll non-tender and perhaps try to work out a two year deal with a team option if they want to keep him, but is he worth that?
Min – ’25
Min – ’26
Arb1 – ’27
Arb2 – ’28
Arb3 – ’29
Do I have this right?
Assuming he misses out ’26, why not roll the dice on his ’27 and ~$1.2M pay? ’28 and ’29 arb pay can’t be that high with all the time missed.
Makes sense.
Him and every other pitcher.
Not a good day to be some of David Stearns Brewer signs Jake Cousins, Pablo Reyes, Brett Sullivan, Keston Huira. Who’s next?
They should non-tender him, then sign him to a split minor league contract. Free up the 40 man roster spot and he could rehab with the team.
He’s already on the 60 day IL and won’t count anymore on the 40 man until he can pitch again with the big club. Same was the case with Lasagna not on the 40.
@Yankees Bleacher Cretaure – I should clarify…they should non-tender him this off-season before setting 40 man roster for Rule 5 draft. That frees up a spot to protect someone from being taken.
Well at least he will get paid…
Just like cousin Kirko Chains..
Kirk has missed a lot of receivers,
but never missed a pay day!
What does baseball need to do to keep this from happening?
Automatic pitching machines
99% of readers haven’t heard of him but this is a big loss that will potentially impact the yankees trade deadline strategy
Not so sure it’s that dramatic, dasit. Beeter can do exactly what Cousins could. JT Brubaker is almost done with rehab and can enter the rotation or slide into long relief.
Yes Brubaker will save the pitching staff.
99% of readers don’t know this one trick…
The next Yankee pitcher to require TJ Surgery will be Max Fried. It’s just the Yankee Way, with their extreme bad luck. Roll your eyes now, then revisit this comment when it happens, and say… “Man, that girl knows her baseball”!!! I pray I’m wrong, btw…
You may be right about Max Fried. He was on IL several times last year, once with left forearm neuritis with the Braves and also 60 day IL in ’23 with left forearm strain. He was shut down one of those years for 2-3 months. Elbow problems usually start with forearm discomfort! Wait until he has the re-occuring left index finger blisters! He will pitch on with blisters putting a strain on his arm by not having a full grip of the ball.
Not to brag, but I’m ALWAYS right. Had he signed in Boston, he would have avoided his impending TJS. Mark my words!
It would be easier to keep track of who’s NOT having Tommy John surgery.
brubaker is a fun project for blake but the yankees don’t need backend rotation help they need swing and miss relievers. cousins struck out 12.6 per 9 last season
Once again, Clayton Beeter is your man.. Cousins was a nice find, but we didn’t just lose peak Mariano here. He pitched 30 freaking innings last year, the team will survive.
of course the team will survive but he was a potential weapon and one less need at the deadline. beeter misses bats but he also misses the strike zone at an alarming rate (5bb/9) do not want him in a high-leverage situation
I’m not happy he’s hurt, he was a nice find last year. He also had 5.7bb/9 rate he’s Clayton Beeter with a bit more MLB success and worse control. Eric Reyzelman is also lurking down at AAA with control issues and putaway stuff. I’m way more interested in finding another righty swinging guy for 2nd or 3rd than I am finding a dude with control issues and strikeout stuff. Those guys are everywhere because they boom/bust too much.