The Pittsburgh Pirates announced today that right-handed pitcher JT Brubaker underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow to reconstruct his ulnar collateral ligament. The surgery was performed by Dr. Keith Meister. Brubaker is projected to return to MLB competition in 14-16 months.
That’s a tough setback for Brubaker, who was going to be one of the core pieces in the rotation this year during his age 29 season. His ERA in 315.2 innings in the majors is 4.99, but his FIP is 4.43. The latter was 3.92 last year, and the hope was that Brubaker would take a step forward in 2023, just as he did from 2021 to 2022.
Under the current timeline, Brubaker won’t return to the majors until next June to next August. Essentially, he will be a summer depth option for the 2024 rotation, or perhaps the equivalent of a trade deadline addition.
The obvious downside to this is that it halts Brubaker at a key time in his career when he was showing progress. Whether he can maintain that progress on the other side of this lengthy layoff will be seen. The Pirates have Brubaker under team control through the 2025 season.
They turned to Johan Oviedo to replace Brubaker this year, and Oviedo pitched very well in his most recent start. The Pirates’ rotation depth has taken a hit lately, with Mike Burrows missing time with a forearm and ligament issue.
