Pittsburgh Pirates relief pitching prospect Ryan Beckman underwent successful Tommy John surgery today, Pirates Prospects has learned. Beckman left the mound during his first appearance in Altoona on April 6th after throwing a pitch in the eighth inning, and has been out of action ever since.
Beckman had a strong season last year, with a 3.12 ERA in 52 innings in Bradenton, along with an 8.0 K/9 and a 3.1 BB/9 ratio. He spent most of his time as Bradenton’s closer, and was expected to be in a late inning role with Altoona this year.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
Not counting guys who had it before they joined the system, can you think of any other Pirate prospect who had TJ since Lincoln? I can’t.
I was going to talk about that in tonight’s “First Pitch”. I’ve been trying to think of the pitcher injuries. They’ve had some guys with TJ surgery, like Donald Veal, but I think this is the first guy that this group has drafted or signed that had TJ surgery.