Under The Knife 3/10/26
The Hives, Short Kings, and new owners
A few years back, a couple people went out of their way to tell me how wrong I was saying that the Diamondbacks were up for sale. One unnamed radio host sent me this:
Will It is just not true. There have been zero discussions about being bought. The Dbacks are not for sale nor or they exploring the idea. Also, Arte may back away. He wanted what the Mets sold for and he is not getting what he thought he would.
I will admit, I did not know that the Waltons - specifically Rob, one of the Broncos owners - had bought a minority stake with a path to majority. (Credit to Sportico for getting it.) It’s a common structure and, well, it happened. I knew - absolutely knew - that the Diamondbacks were taking bids at the time and here we are. So, for that guy (who was right about Arte Moreno pulling the Angels off the market) and the others, cue my theme song and then let’s get to the injuries:
ROBERT STOCK, RP NYM (thoracic outlet syndrome)
When the words arterial thoracic outlet syndrome get attached to a pitcher, alarms go off quickly. Not because thoracic outlet syndrome itself is rare in baseball — it isn’t — but because the arterial version is the worst version a thrower can hear.
The thoracic outlet is the narrow passage between the collarbone and first rib where nerves, veins, and arteries travel from the chest into the arm. Throwers live right on the edge of that space. Years of hypertrophied scalene muscles, shoulder motion, and the repeated overhead slot can slowly compress those structures. Most pitchers who develop TOS end up with either neurogenic symptoms (nerve compression, weakness, numbness) or venous problems (clots in the subclavian vein). Both are serious but treatable.
Arterial TOS is different. When the subclavian artery gets compressed, the stakes rise immediately. Arteries operate under high pressure. If that vessel is repeatedly pinched by the first rib or surrounding structures, the inner lining of the artery can be damaged. That damage can lead to aneurysm formation, clots, or emboli traveling down the arm. In other words, it stops being just a pitching problem and becomes a circulation problem.
That’s why the diagnosis typically triggers aggressive treatment. In most confirmed cases of arterial TOS, surgery isn’t optional. The standard approach is decompression surgery that removes the first rib and repairs the artery if it has been damaged. Pitchers who have had the arterial form almost always go to the operating room quickly because the risk isn’t just performance, it’s limb ischemia. That means clots, reduced blood flow, and even a risk of fatality.
Which brings us to the odd part of the report around Robert Stock: if the diagnosis is locked in as arterial TOS, the expectation would be an expedited surgical consultation and likely a fairly quick path toward surgery. The fact that he hasn’t had surgery yet raises a flag. That doesn’t mean the report is wrong, but it suggests the team might still be in the diagnostic stage, or that what’s being described publicly as “arterial” might actually be another variant.
Teams sometimes use “TOS” loosely while they sort out imaging and vascular testing. It’s hard to diagnose, even with state of the art tools and a baseball medical system that is openly looking for it. Doppler studies, CT angiography, and positional testing are needed to confirm true arterial compression. Until those come back clearly abnormal, surgeons tend to move cautiously.
The other eyebrow-raiser is the timeline. Getting back within the same season after confirmed arterial TOS would be unusual. Recovery from decompression surgery alone can run four to six months, and if arterial repair is involved, the rehab timeline can extend beyond that.
The optimism about a return this year may actually be the best clue here. Either the diagnosis isn’t fully confirmed arterial TOS yet, or the vascular involvement is mild enough that doctors believe it can be managed without immediate surgery. If it truly is arterial, history suggests the calendar will be much less forgiving than the early reports imply.
CARLOS RODON, SP NYY (inflamed elbow)
Carlos Rodon is almost six months post-surgery, and while any surgery is serious, in relative terms, Rodon’s was minor. He had chips and a spur removed and while there’s been no suggestion of a setback, the pacing is deliberate. Like, “Tree of Life” deliberate. Which is not to say it’s not planned this way, with Rodon on track to return early. Opening Day? That seems out, with him just getting to hitters, but sometime in April seems reasonable and that may be part of the plan.
The downside here is that Rodon is so far on the long end of this rehab timeline that it suggests that more was done or that he didn’t recover well initially. There’s no evidence for either of that, but we’ve seen the simplest of chip removals come back in a couple weeks - there was someone in the mid-2000s that came back just over the 15-day minimum and we’ve regularly seen four to six weeks, not six months for these.
But is this plan good? The Yankees are costing themselves starts from Rodon and from Gerrit Cole when both could have been pushed a bit more. We’re probably looking at 10 starts from these two, instead handed off to Luis Gil or Will Warren. In a tightly contested division, how much difference could it make? The Yankees haven’t convinced me this is a medical necessity, not that they’re obligated to do so, but to their fans, they do answer with tickets and viewership, let alone the tattoos and live/die days of the diehard fanatic. Ask me in October if it was a good plan.
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