The Dodgers announced Tuesday that that prospect is high Ryan River he will have Tommy John surgery. He will miss the remainder of the 2024 season and possibly the entire 2025 campaign while he recovers. Ryan, who posted a 1.33 ERA through his first four major league starts, hit the injured list over the weekend after suffering a sprained UCL in his most recent start.
Ryan's 2024 season was already known to be over, but the Tommy John procedure marks the worst situation after his UCL injury. The internal brace procedure may come with a shorter recovery timeline, but it will require a full vein replacement, which often puts the pot on the shelves for more than 14 months. Every rehab process is different, and there's always the chance that Ryan might recover faster than the average pitcher, but a 12-month recovery is usually the bare minimum for pitchers who need Tommy John surgery.
The 25-year-old Ryan was an 11th-round pick by the Padres in 2021. He went to the Dodgers in what now looks like a heist, sending the first baseman/outfielder. Matt Beaty back in San Diego. (Beaty played 20 games with the Padres and hit .093/.170/.163 before being released.) Ryan hadn't made his professional debut at the time and had signed a $100K bonus, so he hadn't started yet. high hopes. Ryan's rise to the majors could have been a success story for Los Angeles' player development, but instead he rose to a position where he is considered one of the best players in the sport. Ryan climbed to No. 21 overall in FanGraphs' top-100 prospect rankings and currently sits at No. 99 on MLB.com's top-100 prospect list.
The reasoning behind that rise isn't too hard to see. Ryan spent most of the 2023 season in Double-A and posted a tidy 3.33 ERA in 97 1/3 frames before being bumped to Triple-A late in the year. He was hit hard in those two starts but returned to Triple-A this year and recorded a 2.76 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate in five starts. He was limited in the minors this season due to a shoulder injury, but Ryan finished his majors with a 3.22 ERA, a 28.5% strikeout rate and a 10% walk rate in parts of three professional seasons since being traded to the Dodgers organization.
Ryan becomes the latest Dodger pitcher to hit the injured list in what has been a testing season for their rotation depth. Los Angeles entered the year as well Clayton Kershaw on the injured list and you know that Tony Gonsolin I would miss most/all of the season recovering from Tommy John surgery last summer. They have seen Emmett Sheehan (Tommy John surgery) and Dustin May (esophageal surgery) falls in season-ending surgery, season Yoshinobu Yamamoto (torn rotator cuff) again Walker Buehler (hip and elbow) have been on the shelf with their injury problems for a long time. Hopes Nick Frasso (shoulder surgery) and Kyle Hurt (Tommy John surgery) they're on the minor league injured list and they've done it year after year. Last year's breakout right-hander, Bobby Millerhe made just seven MLB starts and was inactive for the Dodgers and Triple-A while navigating a shoulder injury.
With that injury laundry list, the Dodgers currently have a rotation that includes Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone and the last day Jack Flaherty. Buehler is expected to return from the injured list later this week, but he has posted a 5.84 ERA in eight starts and a 5.01 ERA in eight other Triple-A starts this season — his first year back since 2022 Tommy John surgery. . He offered a glimmer of hope in his comeback start, pitching 5 1/3 innings and holding the Rangers' Triple-A club to one run on one hit and three walks with five strikeouts.
Because Ryan's injury occurred while he was pitching in the major leagues, he is on MLB's injured list and will spend his 2025 rehabilitation on the major league injured list. He will earn major league pay and service time while he recovers from the injury. That would give him at least a full year of service while he's on the mend, making him eligible for arbitration in the 2027-28 offseason and free agency following the 2030 season. Of course, future draft picks could change one or both of those trajectories, and for now the current focus will simply shift to the long process of getting the talented youngster back to full strength with an eye toward a late 2025 or early 2026 return.
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