Tommy John surgery claimed another victim on Wednesday. News broke in the early afternoon that left-handed starting pitcher Marco Gonzales of the St. Louis Cardinals would need to undergo the procedure. He will miss the remainder of the 2016 season, and will likely be off the mound until mid-way through 2017.
Though unfortunate for the 24-year-old, the announcement is not entirely unexpected. Gonzales felt soreness in his pitching elbow late in Spring Training, and has been weighing treatment options, including the surgery, for some time. It was previously announced that he would miss the start of the minor league season. A second opinion from team doctors confirmed that he would need to go under the knife.
Gonzales is a promising young arm for the Cardinals. Across three minor league seasons, the young lefty owns a 3.27 ERA with 201 strikeouts, compared to just fifty-nine walks. That success has yet to translate to the Major League level, however. He made five starts, and ten total appearances, for St. Louis in 2015, posting a 4.82 ERA and allowing twenty-one walks. He made just one appearance, and one start, in the bigs last season, and surrendered four earned runs in 2.2 innings pitched.
Gonzales was originally drafted out of Rocky Mountain High School in Colorado by the Colorado Rockies in the twenty-ninth round of the 2010 draft. He chose instead to attend Gonzaga University, and was then drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals with the nineteenth overall pick of the first round of the 2013 draft. While Tommy John surgery is not the career-killer it once was, the Cards will still have to hope Gonzales can return to form following his rehab.
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