{"id":75877,"date":"2024-06-05T13:01:51","date_gmt":"2024-06-05T17:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=75877"},"modified":"2024-06-05T13:01:51","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T17:01:51","slug":"cristian-javier-jose-urquidy-elbow-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/05\/cristian-javier-jose-urquidy-elbow-surgery\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Lose Two Starting Pitchers to Season-Ending Elbow Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Houston Astros have lost two more starting pitchers to season-ending elbow surgery. The Astros announced on Wednesday that right-handers <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/javiecr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cristian Javier<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/u\/urquijo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jos\u00e9 Urquidy<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are both set to undergo Tommy John surgery. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Urquidy will have his second Tommy John surgery Wednesday while Javier\u2019s procedure is scheduled for Thursday. It&#8217;s a brutal blow to an Astros team who have <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/14\/astros-postseason-horrendous-start\/\" target=\"_self\">been struggling<\/a> after a terrible start to the season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">RHP Cristian Javier and RHP Jos\u00e9 Urquidy scheduled to undergo elbow surgery. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/l2j8NRGYoo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/l2j8NRGYoo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Houston Astros (@astros) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/astros\/status\/1798365577372959055?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 5, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Cristian Javier, Jos\u00e9 Urquidy to Undergo Tommy John Surgery<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is just the latest blow to an Astros rotation that has already been <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/28\/injured-astros-starters-piling-up\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">crippled by injuries<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> this season. Starters <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/garcilu05.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Luis Garcia<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcculla02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lance McCullers Jr.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> both underwent season-ending arm surgery last season and are not expected back until the All-Star break. Astros ace <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/verlaju01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Justin Verlander<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and left-hander <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/valdefr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Framber Valdez<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have also spent time on the Astros injured list this season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Urquidy missed three months last season with a shoulder injury and has been sidelined with forearm discomfort since March. The 29-year-old was expected to return to the Astros rotation after making his third rehab start on May 24. He threw 56 pitches before leaving the game after flexing his hand and fingers after throwing a pitch.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Javier was placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to May 24, with a right forearm injury. This was the second stint on the injured list this season after neck discomfort sidelined the right-hander in late April. He returned to the injured list after his velocity \u201cplummeted\u201d in his last outing on May 21. Injuries aside, Javier has pitched rather well, posting a 3.89 ERA over 34 2\/3 innings of work.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>A Tough Loss for Houston<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both Javier and Urquidy met with renowned surgeon Dr. Keith Meister who recommended the two teammates undergo Tommy John surgery. This will be Urquidy\u2019s second elbow reconstruction after undergoing Tommy John surgery for the first time back in 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Astros enter play Wednesday with a 28-34 record and sit seven games back in the AL West. Though the Astros have been trending up going 15-10 in their last 25 games. Houston\u2019s starting rotation carries a 4.71 ERA into Wednesday\u2019s contest, the fourth worst in the majors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Astros general manager Dana Brown said earlier this week that the team would be buyers at this year\u2019s trade deadline. With two key starters sidelined until 2025, a starting pitcher will likely be a priority for an Astros team trying to get back to the postseason.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since the Astros were using a six-man rotation before Javier\u2019s injury, they still have five starters on the active roster. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/blancro01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ronel Blanco<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will draw the start for the Astros on Wednesday, but they have not announced their starters for this weekend\u2019s series against the Los Angeles Angels.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: \u00a9 Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Houston Astros have lost two more starting pitchers to season-ending elbow surgery. The Astros announced on Wednesday that right-handers Cristian Javier and Jos\u00e9 Urquidy are both set to undergo Tommy John surgery. Urquidy will have his second Tommy John surgery Wednesday while Javier\u2019s procedure is scheduled for Thursday. It&#8217;s a brutal blow to an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":75888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1071,35],"tags":[2359,3911,247,3912,3445,28503],"class_list":["post-75877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astros","category-mlb","category-news","tag-framber-valdez","tag-jose-urquidy","tag-justin-verlander","tag-lance-mccullers-jr","tag-luis-garcia","tag-ronel-blanco"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}