Marco Gonzales, a first-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals back in 2013, will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the remainder of the 2016 season.
Based on the normal recovery time for this all-too-common surgery, the left-handed pitcher will likely miss some of the 2017 campaign as well.
Marco Gonzales will have Tommy John surgery, Mozeliak confirms. Lefty is out for the year. #cardinals #stlcards
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) April 13, 2016
Gonzales, 24, experienced soreness in the elbow during spring training and had not participated in the start of the minor league season.
“I did speak with him (Gonzales),” Cardinals GM John Mozeliak said on Wednesday, via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “He’s certainly disappointed. As a pitcher, he knows there is risk when you throw, and he feels he will come back better and stronger than prior to the injury.”
The former first-round pick from Gonzaga has seen some action in the Majors over the past two seasons, compiling a 4-2 record with a 4.82 ERA and 1.45 WHIP in 11 games (six starts) for the Cardinals.
Considered a consensus top-50 prospect heading into the 2015 season, it’s good that Gonzales can get what’s becoming a common surgery out of the way early in his career. It is, however, unfortunate that he has to go through the rehab at all.
Expected to provide the Cardinals’ rotation with depth as the season progresses, Gonzales’ injury may end up hurting the squad down the road. The good news here is that this organization, as always, has depth down on the farm.