Drew

Thorpe

The encouraging news is that he had a follow-up visit with Dr. Keith Meister who confirmed that the ligament looks good. While the issue isn’t believed to be serious, it has slowed Thorpe’s progression in his recovery from Tommy John surgery. He is still playing catch and is hopeful to throw off of a mound for the first time at some point within the next three weeks.

This move is purely procedural. Thorpe will have Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2025 season.

It’s a brutal development for Thorpe, who has battled elbow issues since late August and experienced offseason several setbacks while trying to ramp up his throwing program. The 24-year-old top pitching prospect will be sidelined into the 2026 campaign.

The 24-year-old right-hander received a cortisone injection at the beginning of February to combat the soreness in his elbow and has still been very slow to progress since then. It’s unclear at the moment if there are any plans for him to undergo imaging to see what’s going on there, but he’ll almost certainly open the season on the injured list.

Thorpe will get a couple of live BP sessions before moving to a five-day routine — assuming those sessions go well, of course. The right-hander may need to open the 2025 season on the injured list, but it’s obviously a positive sign that he’s ready to face hitters.

Thorpe threw a 20-pitch bullpen, and while he wasn’t close to full throttle — he was throwing 84-85 mph with his fastball — the important thing is he’s back on the mound and feeling well. The 24-year-old is behind the other White Sox starters, but has plenty of time to be ready for the start of the 2025 campaign.

Thorpe clearly wasn’t going 100 percent, as he was reportedly throwing 84-85 mph during the bullpen. The 24-year-old received a cortisone injection near the start of February and is considered “behind” the other White Sox starters. The next step is three weeks of bullpens, followed by live BP. Assuming good health, Thorpe should pitch near the back of the Chicago rotation to begin the 2025 campaign.

Iriarte looked sharp in six relief appearances last September for the White Sox in his first taste of the majors. The 23-year-old top pitching prospect enters spring training with a realistic shot at breaking camp in Chicago’s season-opening starting rotation, but it’s fair to wonder if his subpar control will hinder his effectiveness. He’ll likely have to edge out some combination of Drew Thorpe, Sean Burke and Bryse Wilson for a rotation spot. There’s plenty of talent and strikeout upside here, which makes him interesting in extremely deep mixed leagues and AL-only formats.

Getz did say that the right-hander is behind the other healthy arms after receiving a cortisone injection at the end of January, but they expect Thorpe to be “active” throughout spring training. Assuming good health, Thorpe should be a member of the Chicago rotation this season, but he’s more of a long-term play than one who should be trusted in 2025 from a fantasy perspective.

The latest development qualifies as a slight setback in Thorpe’s recovery from surgery last September to have a bone spur removed from his right elbow. “I’m hoping that kind of clears it up and we are good to go from here,” the former top pitching prospect told reporters last week at SoxFest Live before adding that he isn’t dealing with any structural issues in his surgically repaired elbow. The 24-year-old righty, who is aiming to resume throwing in early February, struggled to keep the ball in the yard last year in his first taste of the majors, coughing up eight round-trippers in just 44 1/3 innings over nine starts. His changeup is one of the nastiest in the sport and he projects to be a key component of Chicago’s rotation mix moving forward after coming over last year from the Padres in the Dylan Cease trade.