Tyler Stephenson tweeted out late last night that he was going to be undergoing wrist surgery.
Hate that this season came up short and all the injuries but I will have Surgrey on Tuesday to fix my wrist. Thanks for all the support??
— Tyler Stephenson (@Tyler_Step22) August 23, 2016
It’s been a bit of a lost season for Tyler Stephenson. The 2015 first round pick for the Cincinnati Reds initially injured his wrist in May and hit the disabled list. That led to him spending six weeks on the disabled list before going on a rehab stint where he would play with the Arizona League Reds for five games, getting a hit in each one before returning to the Dayton Dragons on July 13th.
Over nine day and seven games played the 19-year-old catcher would hit .375/.423/.542, but in that seventh game he was pinch hit for later in the game. He would experience some wrist issues again and head back to the disabled list.
After two-and-a-half weeks he returned to the lineup, struggling at first, going just 1-17 in the first five games back. In the next two starts he went 2-6 with a double, home run and a walk. Stephenson wouldn’t play again after that, heading back to the disabled list with the wrist injury giving him more problems.
After that last time of it coming back up he traveled to Cincinnati to have Dr. Kremchek look at it again and this time it appeared to be bad enough that it was going to require surgery to repair. He’s expected to be back and ready to play by spring training for next season.
Wrist injuries generally aren’t good. They can linger, and as we saw with Tyler Stephenson this year, they can keep popping back up. Hopefully the surgery will take care of any future issues with the wrist, but it’s worth keeping in mind that while wrists can generally be healthy, they do often take a little longer time to heal fully when it comes to finding the power on the baseball field. Studies have shown that it can take up to a full year after the injury for power to return to it’s old form after serious wrist injuries.