Wednesday’s News & Notes
| Team | Yesterday | Today | Pitching Probables |
| Rochester | Lost, 6-5 | @ Worcester, 6:05pm | Sampson (5-4, 4.35) vs. Uberstine (5-4, 3.77) |
Worcester 6 Rochester 5
• Eder (L, 0-1) 2IP, 4H, 4R, 4ER, 1BB, 4K, HR
• Luckham 5IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 3K
• Cluff 3-4, 2R, 2B
• Stubbs 2-4, R, HR(5), 3RBI
• Glasser 2-4
The (ugh) Woo Sox jumped out to a 4-0 lead as rehabbing Jake Eder “worked on some stuff” then added single runs in the 7th and 8th innings. That proved to be enough as the Red Wings’ 9th-inning rally was one run and a 120′ short for a 6-5 loss. Eder gave up a three-run HR in the 1st and a pair of doubles in the 2nd as he put in his 50 pitches and handed it over to the Rochester bullpen. Kyle Luckham held things down for four inning before allowing a run in the 7th and Zach Brzkycy failed to turn in a clean outing for the 10th time in his last 11 outings, letting in a run in the 8th that proved to be the difference. Jackson Cluff singled twice, scored twice, and doubled in the 9th while C.J. Stubbs singled, homered, and drove in three to lead the Red Wings offense. Roster moves: LHP Jake Eder reassigned from Harrisburg.
SUSANA HAS SURGERY ON LAT, NOT ELBOW
As noted in the comments, Jarlin Susana has had surgery on his latissimus dorsi. While the return rate is high, the recovery timeline is very bit as long as UCL replacement – about 14.5 months, according to this recent study.
The sample size for both studies is not large—statistically significant, perhaps, but not sizable—so that needs to be considered. Also, neither study went into much depth about comorbidities (in layman’s terms, the correlation between concurrent injuries).
Susana missed considerable time this season due to elbow issues. Whether one to led to the other is certainly possible. Likewise, it’s possible that those issues could return once he begins throwing (as was noted in the 2025 study).
TL:DR; – Don’t count on Susana until ’27
Jesus. This just gets worse and worse. Can we even trust the org anymore to report accurately on injuries?
Sykora was reported to have “triceps soreness” in early July, then 2 weeks later he was announced to have a torn UCL.
Susana was reported to have a “lat strain”, and now he’s had a next-season-ending surgery.
We lost Herz and Stuart earlier this season. And if Cavalli, Gray and Bennett’s recovery times are anything to go by, the minimum recovery time is now more like 15 months before competitive games resume plus several months of building back stamina, but upwards of 2.5 years.
We’re looking at Herz ramping up pitch counts in the minors in the 2nd half of 2026, and maybe a September cameo, so realistically contributing in DC in 2027. Sykora, Susana and Stuart can write off 2026, and given that all 3 were in Harrisburg at the time of injury, still need to make the jump to AAA, before DC being an option, so assuming they come back healthy without any problems, their horizon is 2nd half of 2027 on pretty stringent workload limits.
How is it even possible for the Nats to be competitive before 2028 at this point?
2028? I’m not counting on them til 2030. They just spent all their 2025 draft capital on teenage HS kids who are 4-5 years out. That’s a pretty big statement on where the team thinks they are in this rebuild effort and when they think they’ll be competitive again.
Todd, that sounds like good grist for an offseason post or two on your site. It really is a conundrum with so many of the young hitters seemingly on the cusp of being ready but the next-gen pitching crop struggling to stay healthy. And I hope that they’ve proven beyond all reasonable doubt that Parker and Irvin aren’t MLB starters.
I am not a doctor, but the cited study relates to recovery time for surgery to repair a tendon. Maybe Susana had surgery to repair a tendon, but all press reports I’ve seen say he had surgery to repair his “lat muscle.” A muscle tear–not a tendon tear–can be so severe that it requires surgery, which of course would require a significant recovery time (but probably not a calendar year). Do we have reporting that states clearly that Susana had surgery to repair a tendon? If not, then let’s slow down on declaring ’26 a lost year for him.
The headline is a little misleading, but you can see here the study clearly refer to muscles, not tendons. It’s a longstanding saw from scouts that shoulder injuries are the worst. Because (A) they are uncommon (B) there’s no “silver bullet,” they’re not as well-known. I would be love to be wrong about Susana being out most, if not all, of next year. But I have 15+ years of following of this organization and researching this subject that says otherwise.
Come on, dude, it’s not the headline: “A cohort consisting of 8 professional baseball pitchers (1 Major League, 7 Minor league) who underwent surgical repair of the latissimus dorsi tendon were included in the study; 50% (4/8) of these patients underwent simultaneous teres major repair in the same procedure. 87.5% (7/8) of these pitchers were able to full return to sport with an overall average time to return of 14.5 ± 6.0 months after operation.”
The study is clearly and unambiguously about TENDON tears being repaired via surgery. The sample is of eight players who had their TENDON repaired via surgery. Only four of those eight players had their MUSCLE surgically repaired. The study simply doesn’t tell us anything about recovery time for a player who has a MUSCLE repaired via surgery but not a tendon. If this study is to tell us anything whatsoever worthwhile about Susana’s recovery, then we must know whether Susana had his TENDON repaired via surgery (which we don’t know). I take your point about the organization being squirrely, and that may be what is occurring here. But I’m not going to write off 2026 until I hear Susana had his tendon repaired (which, again, nobody has heard).
Jackson Cluff turns 29 in December. J. T. Arruda turns 28 next month. You have to wonder how long they’ll keep chasing the dream. You have to be a tremendous baseball player to make it to AAA, but sometimes it’s just not quite enough.
Getting accurate information from the organization assumes that they have accurate information that they are refusing to dole out. As a person with a “colorful” medical history, I can tell you that doctors don’t always know what’s going on. There’s a world in which everyone is doing the best they can and still the picture gets jumbled.
Given that the information is also personal health information of the athlete, the athlete may have a say in what gets discussed and what doesn’t. I wouldn’t be surprised if the standard MLB contract has at least a limited HIPAA waiver, but I don’t know the scope even if it exists.