Under The Knife 7/2/26
It Cannot Be Stopped
No, I’m not showing the collision but one of the scariest I’ve seen. If prayers for Lasko help so be it, but thanks to the medical staffs on hand, the doctors who saved him, and for the rehab staff that will help him.
Chris Welsh is absolutely right. Not sure how ‘flexible’ works in some parks, but I like the concept. Maybe something like a SAFER barrier as in racing?
CONNELLY EARLY, SP BOS (inflamed elbow)
Connelly Early’s season had started to feel like one of the better stories in Boston. A rookie left-hander, not overpowering but plenty effective, taking the ball every fifth day while the Red Sox tried to navigate a season that keeps asking more of its young arms than they probably intended. Then came four scoreless innings, five strikeouts, and elbow inflammation. That’s how quickly pitching changes.
The MRI becomes the story now. (Late word is no UCL damage per the MRI.)“Inflammation” isn’t really a diagnosis. It’s the elbow’s way of saying something isn’t right. Sometimes that’s simply fatigue. Sometimes it’s a flexor issue, an irritated nerve, or an early warning that mechanics and workload have drifted out of balance. The fact that Boston immediately shut him down rather than trying to squeeze another start out of him suggests they’re taking the warning seriously.
Garrett Crochet is already dealing with his own prolonged absence, and suddenly the Red Sox are asking more questions about the rotation than they were a month ago. This is where young pitching gets tricky. You spend years developing enough arms to survive a season, then discover they all arrive at the same time and all hit the same workload thresholds at roughly the same time.
Boston still has serious decisions to make, starting at the top. The problem is that potential stops helping once you’re looking at the injured list instead of the depth chart. That’s what makes the weeks leading into the All-Star break so important. If Early’s imaging is clean and Crochet continues progressing, the Red Sox can still look at the second half as a chance to ask some questions about next year. If either timeline slips, the front office starts asking very different questions. The irony is that the Red Sox finally developed the young pitching they’ve been chasing for years, even as their young hitters continue to underperform. Now the challenge is keeping enough of it on the mound to matter.
COLE RAGANS, SP KCR (inflamed elbow)
KRIS BUBIC, SP KCR (inflamed elbow/inflamed shoulder)
The bonus of this coming out on a Thursday is that we know what happened on Wednesday. Except in this case, we don’t. Cole Ragans was scheduled to have surgery on his elbow Wednesday but as yet, the details aren’t public. What we do know is that Ragans is likely done for the season and there’s some indication that he may miss part of next. If you immediately thought “Tommy John”, you’re probably close as few other issues have that timeline. Remember as well that Ragans had elbow reconstruction in 2018, with a graft tear during rehab that necessitated a full revision. If it is another revision, it’s functionally his third Tommy John and there’s not many of those.
The hope going in is this wouldn’t be necessary. In olden days, we would have called the surgery exploratory, but it was more a case where Dr. Neal ElAttrache went in with a couple plans, depending on what he saw. (Yes, this seems a perfect place for the use of a NanoNeedle as a diagnostic tool, if not a surgical one.)
If this is another reconstruction, the outlook becomes much murkier than simply adding another 12 to 18 months to the calendar. Revision Tommy John surgeries can succeed. We’ve seen enough of them now to know they aren’t career-ending by definition. A third ligament procedure, however you choose to count it, lives in much less explored territory. The tissue options become more limited, the biology less predictable, and the margin for error almost nonexistent. Ragans is still young enough that betting against him feels foolish, but every surgery changes the conversation from “when will he be back?” to “what version comes back?”
As if that wasn’t enough, Kris Bubic’s setback couldn’t have come at a worse time. Bubic had been one of the better stories in baseball, reinventing himself after his own elbow reconstruction and looking like a legitimate rotation piece rather than simply someone who survived rehab. Now the shoulder has become part of the discussion, and while those issues aren’t directly connected to the elbow, they’re part of the same reality. The Royals are losing a lot of innings and even more certainty, sliding down the depth chart to places it wasn’t built to go. Every contender can survive one ace going down. Losing another dependable starter at the same time changes how you view the next three months.
That’s the bigger story here. Kansas City entered the season believing its rotation could carry an offense that still had questions. Now Seth Lugo is carrying more than anyone expected, Michael Wacha is being asked to stabilize things, and every fifth day becomes a little more of an adventure. The Royals suddenly look less like a club chasing Cleveland and Detroit and more like one trying to figure out how to make it through July as much as September.
It’s amazing how quickly a team’s identity can change. A month ago, the Royals looked like a star-led organization that just needed a couple things to go right and boy, they didn’t. Now they’re discovering what every club eventually learns - the more even planned depth is tested, the more things that can go wrong.
Off tomorrow for Taylor Swift’s wedding - maybe - but I’m always here watching for injuries, ready to do a UTK Flash if needed. We’ll be back on normal schedule next week and I’ll ask for you to consider subscribing here, to Injury Territory, or both would help start your July off the right way. Have a great holiday and go, Joey Chestnut!
Also, I’ve made the decision that in terms of discussions of teams, I’m just going to ignore the impending labor situation. Teams I speak to know it’s there, but they’re planning as if everything is normal. It’s easy enough to stop or pause, as is likely, but the planning at least makes more sense to be fluid and ongoing. It makes sense for me to do the same, even if I’ll also acknowledge reality.