Orioles general manager Mike Elias informed the media today that both left-hander John Means and right-hander Tyler Wells will undergo elbow surgery. Each player will be undergoing ulnar collateral ligament repair, though it’s not known if either will be full Tommy John surgery or the internal brace alternative. In either case, both players are now set to miss the remainder of the season. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com was among those to relay the news on X.
It’s an unfortunate double blow to the Baltimore rotation depth.
Even without Means and Wells, reinforcements could be coming from within. Dean Kremer is on the injured list but isn’t expected to be out too much longer. Prospects Cade Povich and Chayce McDermott are both throwing well in Triple-A this year.
The club is 35-19 and comfortably in playoff position. Perhaps they will use the coming weeks and months to evaluate everyone in that group and see how things look in the middle of July, but it also seems fair to expect the O’s to be exploring the trade market for starting pitching this summer.
McDermott is one of the guys I would want back if we went big in a trade with the Orioles. I love his stuff, and our staff could turn him into a star.
Another one is Basallo. A catcher with a 60 hit, and power tool is hard to find. He would be our catcher for a very long time. They already have Rutschman so maybe they would move him.
There is some thinking out there that the innings cap being put on pitchers is actually hurting them more than it helps. Basically they are saying that when pitchers used to throw considerably more innings, it kept their arms ‘strong’, and they had less injuries.
I’m not sure if I buy it or not, but it’s interesting.
We had another thread about it awhile back. I think a lot of it is the max effort all the time. They are so obsessed with velo and spin rate. Ligaments just snap eventually.