in other medical news, minor league IF/OF Donald Lutz this morning had season-ending reconstructive UCL surgery
It’s never good news to wind up losing nearly an entire season to injury, but it’s even more complicated for Lutz, who is in his last option year and really could have used the season to round out his game before he must stick in the big leagues for the 2016 season.
Position players can usually return from Tommy John surgery quicker than pitchers because they don’t throw nearly as often and there’s far less stress on their arms. Still, this is going to cost Lutz the regular season and leave very little chance he can play any sort of winter league baseball, as even at eight months out, that would push things to January, as the playoffs are well underway in the Caribbean Leagues. With a designated hitter spot,it could leave open a small window of opportunity for Lutz to get some playing time later in the winter league season.