Yankees’ Loaisiga to have season-ending surgery
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
NEW YORK — The Yankees entered 2024 hopeful that their terrible injury luck in 2023 wouldn’t bleed into the new year. The early returns aren’t promising.
The latest setback is a significant blow to the bullpen: Reliever Jonathan Loaisiga announced Saturday that he will undergo season-ending surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right throwing elbow.
Loaisiga said he will not have Tommy John surgery, which would have required 16 months for recovery. Instead, he will have a procedure that will sideline him for 10 to 12 months. He said Dr. Keith Meister will handle the surgery in Texas. Meister is known for performing an internal brace UCL surgery that trims recovery time.
Loaisiga, 29, said he felt pain in his elbow when he threw a changeup late in his scoreless inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday. He underwent an MRI on his elbow Thursday, which revealed the damage. He was placed on the 60-day injured list Friday.
It’s the second significant injury in a year for Loaisiga. He was limited to 17 appearances last season after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to remove a bone spur in his right elbow. He also missed nearly two months in 2022 with shoulder inflammation.
“It’s very hard. Frustrating,” Loaisiga said in Spanish. “Two years in a row. … Lose, last year, almost the entire season, and this year, practically, all of it. It frustrates me a lot, but the will to keep playing, battling is what keeps me good. It’s very hard.”
Loaisiga joined Gerrit Cole (elbow) and DJ LeMahieu (foot) as important contributors to have already landed on the Yankees’ injured list this season.
Cole, the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, isn’t expected to return before June. LeMahieu, the club’s projected leadoff hitter, could return by the end of the month. The third baseman, out with a nondisplaced fracture in his right foot, took batting practice on the field Friday for the first time since suffering the injury.
Loaisiga was slated to replace Michael King, who was traded over the offseason, as the Yankees’ primary multi-inning bullpen option. He appeared in three of the Yankees’ first seven games, logging four scoreless innings.
Loaisiga’s most important outing in 2024, however, happened during spring training when his mother traveled from Nicaragua to Mexico City to watch him pitch as a Yankee for the first time against the Diablos Rojos.
“Obviously, it’s tough news,” Boone said. “First thought is just for him, you feel for him. And he’s throwing the ball so well. He’s just dealt with things over the last years that have, I think, added up to this point.”
A free agent next offseason, there’s a chance Loasigia’s outing Wednesday was his last appearance in a Yankees uniform.
“My mind isn’t on that right now,” Loaisiga said. “My mind is on going to see the doctor, getting the surgery and the recovery. And then see what happens in the future.”
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Alden Gonzalez
The San Francisco Giants, suddenly back in the playoff race with two weeks remaining in the regular season, called up their top prospect Bryce Eldridge, the team announced Monday.
Eldridge, a 20-year-old first baseman who was No. 29 in the latest prospect rankings by ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel, will seemingly fill the role vacated by fellow left-handed hitter Dominic Smith, who went on the injured list because of a hamstring strain over the weekend.
The 16th pick out of high school in 2023, Eldridge surged in Double-A at the start of the season and was slashing .249/.322/.514 with 18 homers, 88 strikeouts and 28 walks for the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate. His strikeout rate remained high of late, but his production improved over these past 17 games, during which he boasted a .294 batting average with 10 extra-base hits.
The Giants were using Rafael Devers at first base and designated hitter, with Smith and the right-handed-hitting Wilmer Flores essentially platooning at the other spot. Eldridge will be playoff eligible.
After acquiring Devers in the middle of June, the Giants went 13-22 heading into the trade deadline at the end of July, prompting the front office to deal veteran players. As of Aug. 22, the Giants were seven games below .500 and 7½ games out of the final National League wild-card spot, but they have since won 14 of 20 games and trail the slumping New York Mets by only 1½ games with 13 remaining.
PITTSBURGH — The Chicago Cubs activated right-hander Michael Soroka from the 15-day injured list before Monday night’s game against Pittsburgh.
Soroka will be used as a reliever. The Cubs acquired Soroka from Washington at the trade deadline and planned to use him as a starter.
However, Soroka pitched just two innings in his Cubs debut against Cincinnati on Aug. 4 and left because of a right shoulder strain. Soroka made a rehab appearance with Triple-A Iowa and allowed one run in 2⅓ innings.
Soroka is 3-8 this season with a 4.86 ERA in 17 starts.
Right-hander Ben Brown was optioned to Iowa in a corresponding move. He is 5-8 with a 5.92 ERA in 25 games, including 15 starts.
Cubs closer Daniel Palencia threw off the mound for the first time since going on the IL on Sept. 8 because of a right shoulder strain. He has converted 22 of 25 save opportunities and has a 3.00 ERA in 52 games.
Designated hitter Seiya Suzuki was not in the lineup Monday because of bronchitis.
The Cubs hold the first wild-card position in the National League.
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