The Cleveland Guardians are well known as a pitching factory, and recently, it was looking like they were churning out yet another member in what has been a long line of electrifying pitchers.
Andrew Walters was called up to the big leagues in late May and made a pair of appearances before suffering a rough-looking shoulder injury against the Los Angeles Angeles last Friday.
The injury didn't look good right from the jump, as Walters was in obvious pain as he came off the field. Well, now, the Guardians have provided an update on the hard-throwing right-hander, and as expected, it isn't great.
Cleveland president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti has revealed that Walters has a "significant tear" in his right lat muscle and will be out for "a while." The Guardians have not yet determined if Walters will require surgery, via Guardians Prospective.
Walters has been brilliant at Triple-A Columbus this season, pitching to the tune of a 1.50 ERA while registering 23 strikeouts over 12 innings of work. Last year, the 24-year-old went 4-0 with a 2.32 ERA in 50 relief appearances between Double-A Akron and Triple-A, surrendering just 33 hits while racking up 79 punchouts across 50.1 frames.
Cleveland selected Walters in the second round of the 2023 MLB Draft. He played his collegiate baseball at Miami and was a shutdown reliever for the Hurricanes, averaging 15 strikeouts per nine innings. He seemed on track to continue that dominance on the major-league level, but obviously, this injury has thrown a significant wrench into things.
Hopefully, Walters can make a quick recovery and return to the mound sooner than we think.
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