Mariners right-hander Matt Brash underwent Tommy John surgery on Wednesday, per Adam Jude of the Seattle Times on X, relaying word from general manager Justin Hollander. The righty had his ligament repaired and a brace installed, with the club expecting a return in June of next year, per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com on X.
It’s obviously an unfortunate blow for both the Mariners and Brash, as the righty had been so impressive over the past two years. He was a highly-touted starting prospect while climbing through the minors, but a lack of control seemed to be pushing him towards a relief role, which is how things have played out in the majors thus far.
He debuted in 2022 with five starts but had a 7.65 earned run average in those, walking 17.9% of batters faced. He was sent back down to the minors and moved to a bullpen role. He re-emerged with the big league club in July and posted a 2.35 ERA in 30 2/3 innings the rest of the way. His 12.6% walk rate was still on the high side but he was able to punch out 33.9% of opponents.
2023 saw him continue to establish himself as a bonafide big league reliever and even move into a leverage role for the Mariners. He put up a 3.06 ERA last year across 78 appearances. He dropped his walk rate to 9.4% while still getting punchouts 34.7% of the time. He recorded four saves and 24 holds in the process.
Here in 2024, it’s been mostly ominous. It was reported at the end of February that Brash was potentially looking at a lengthy absence, but he was cleared to resume throwing just a few days later. The bad news returned at the end of April when his progress was shut down. He was transferred to the 60-day injured list earlier this week and now the worries of a lengthy absence have come to fruition.
He will now spend the rest of this year and a chunk of 2025 rehabbing from the surgery, forcing the club to proceed without him. Andrés Muñoz is in the closer’s role while pitchers like Ryne Stanek and Gabe Speier lead the setup crew.
Brash came into 2024 with one year and 121 days of service time. That will give him a borderline chance at qualifying for arbitration this winter as a Super Two player. Looking at recent history, that amount of service would have been sufficient three times since 2009, though all three of those occured in the five most recent seasons.
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