TORONTO — Ricky Tiedemann is scheduled for ligament-reconstruction surgery on his left elbow next week, the latest pitcher in the Toronto Blue Jays organization to undergo a major procedure this season.
Manager John Schneider revealed the news Saturday after the 21-year-old top pitching prospect visited specialists Dr. Keith Meister and Dr. Neal ElAttrache for second and third opinions on his troublesome elbow.
ElAttrache will perform the procedure, also known as Tommy John surgery, on Tuesday, effectively ruling Tiedemann out of factoring into the Blue Jays mix in 2025. Health issues limited him to 62 innings last season and just 17.1 innings this season.
At the big-league level, Alek Manoah underwent the hybrid UCL reconstruction and internal brace procedure, as did two other top pitching prospects, Brandon Barriera and Landen Maroudis. All-star closer Jordan Romano, meanwhile, is still recovering from arthroscopic surgery to repair an impingement in his right elbow.
The slew of injuries come after an extended period of relative health among Blue Jays pitchers organization-wide with Hyun Jin Ryu in 2022 the most prominent pitcher to undergo Tommy John. Free-agent signee Kirby Yates had the procedure in spring training 2021.
“Some of it is fact of life. Some of it is risk that you take with any pitcher,” Schneider said of how hard the organization has been hit this season. “The last couple of years, we’ve been one of, if not the healthiest organization kind of up and down. You try to stay ahead of it. It’s almost impossible to do. But you look at everything from strength and conditioning, throwing programs, how much they’re throwing in the off-season. Our processes and programs have been pretty steady. But, yeah, it’s been a tough year kind of up and down.”
The volume of major pitching injuries across the industry this year has prompted some to describe the situation as a crisis, one with no clear answers.
MLB’s competition committee is doing an extensive study of what can be done to alleviate the problems some feel are rooted in the sport’s ever-increasing pursuit of more and more velocity.
“I think every team is kind of examining that now,” said Schneider. “It has been for the last couple of years a big push in velo, stuff, max effort. You see it all around the industry, even in the off-season, guys throwing hard. Talking to Dave Bush (Friday), he’s over there with Texas and said (Jacob) deGrom is throwing 97 in his bullpens. He hasn’t even faced hitters yet. He’s a freak, but you look at our spring training and how hard guys are throwing early, everyone kind of deals with that. Definitely conversations within the organization that we have to try to combat it.”
