Another day, another young pitcher lost to Tommy John elbow surgery. This time it’s A’s right-hander Jarrod Parker, who was slated to start on Opening Day and will instead be undergoing Tommy John surgery for the second time at age 25.
Parker had the first surgery while in the Diamondbacks’ farm system and bounced back very well, posting a 3.73 ERA in 378 innings for the A’s during the past two seasons after coming over in the late-2011 trade for Trevor Cahill.
The list of pitchers who’ve come back from multiple Tommy John surgeries isn’t a particularly long one, however, so it’s much tougher to predict how he’ll fare this time around. Best-case scenario is that he’ll miss all of this season and be ready to rejoin the rotation early next year.
Oakland also just lost A.J. Griffin for at least a month with flexor tendinitis and the news may get even worse, as the A’s had to scratch Scott Kazmir from today’s scheduled start with a triceps strain. Assuming (please!) that the A’s can keep Sonny Gray healthy for the next couple weeks it looks like he’ll be the Opening Day starter with a grand total of 10 regular season starts under his belt.