Yankees reliever the latest to undergo season-ending surgery

Yankees reliever Jonathan Loaisiga revealed to reporters (including MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch) that he will need surgery to repair a torn UCL.  The procedure isn’t a Tommy John surgery so it comes with a shorter recovery timeline of 10-12 months, but Loaisiga will obviously still miss the rest of the 2024 season.

New York already placed Loaisiga on the 60-day injured list yesterday with what was described as a right flexor strain. The fact that the right-hander was immediately sent to the 60-day IL was an ominous hint that he might be facing a particularly serious injury.  Unfortunately, his 2024 campaign will now come to an end after only three games and four scoreless innings.

This is the most serious injury yet in a star-crossed career for the 29-year-old.  When Loaisiga has been able to pitch, he has been very effective — over 219 2/3 MLB innings, the righty has a 3.44 ERA, 22.5% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate, a very impressive 54.7% grounder rate, and some of the best soft-contact numbers of any hurler in the sport.  His bottom-line results have only been better since a full-time move to relief pitching in 2021, and that season saw Loaisiga post a 2.17 ERA in 70 2/3 innings over 57 appearances.

2021 was also just about the healthiest season of Loaisiga’s career, and even that breakout campaign saw him miss about a month due to a rotator cuff strain and a stint on the COVID-related injury list.  He missed about seven weeks in 2022 with shoulder inflammation and was limited to 17.2 innings in 2023 due to elbow inflammation, surgery to remove a bone spur from that troublesome elbow, and another inflammation-related IL placement last September. This is all on top of a Tommy John surgery that Loaisiga required in 2016, soon after joining the Yankees organization.

Since Loaisiga is a free agent after the season, he may have played his last game in the pinstripes.  The Yankees might simply want to move on from a pitcher with so many health-related question marks, yet Loaisiga won’t have a particularly high price tag coming off a lost season.  Since the Yankees know his injury history as well as anyone else, if they still have faith that Loaisiga can return, it seems entirely possible that the two sides could agree on a low-cost, one-year contract for 2025.  Given how the surgery hasn’t even taken place yet, there’s no rush for either side to make a decision yet, and New York will have several months to monitor Loaisiga’s recovery process.

From Loaisiga’s perspective, the UCL injury is obviously a huge blow on many levels, but a good and healthy season would’ve lined him up for a nice free-agent deal.  Though he lacks the big strikeout numbers that usually lead to the highest tier of reliever contracts, Loaisiga’s knack for inducing soft contact and keeping the ball on the ground would’ve drawn attention from plenty of suitors.  At a much lower price tag, this might still end up being the case in free agency, as Loaisiga has appeal as a buy-low candidate if he can establish that he’s healthy.

Scott Effross (back surgery) and Lou Trivino (Tommy John surgery) aren’t expected to be available until closer to midseason. The Yankees are also being cautious with Tommy Kahnle’s recovery from shoulder inflammation since he was still battling some residual soreness in spring training. Between these injured pitchers and Loaisiga, there is plenty of opportunity emerging in New York’s bullpen for the several new relievers acquired over the offseason.

Apart from the injury concerns in the relief corps, the larger-scale question of Gerrit Cole’s health is still hanging over the team since the ace will be recovering from nerve inflammation until at least late May.  The Yankees have done well in developing relief pitchers and finding hidden-gem bullpen options, so expect the team to continue pursuing lower-level acquisitions until some of their in-house names get healthy or until some bigger-name possibilities become available closer to the trade deadline.