PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — One of the Braves’ promising prospects will be sidelined for the entire season.
Right-hander Blake Burkhalter will undergo Tommy John surgery. Manager Brian Snitker addressed the injury update after the news was confirmed by several people familiar with the situation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The news was reported first by Auburn Daily, which covers Burkhalter’s alma mater.
“I hate it for him,” Snitker said Thursday at Clover Park before an exhibition game against the Mets. “He was doing so well. I was excited to watch him go. It’s just probably something that was inevitable. He’s going to have a year-later start. He’ll come back stronger than ever, but I like everything about that young man and what I saw, and the makeup and the stuff and everything, and I hate it for him, coming into his first spring.
“That’s tough, but I’m pretty confident that he’s a tough kid. He’ll get through it, and he’ll come back and feel good and be fine.”
Tommy John surgery is used to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in a pitcher’s elbow. The recovery time is usually 12 to 18 months because a lengthy rehab process follows the procedure.
Burkhalter, the Braves’ No. 22 prospect on MLB Pipeline, tossed a scoreless inning Sunday in Tampa during his first exhibition game. He struck out two batters and walked one. His fastball reached 97.7 mph on the stadium radar gun.
As pitchers have begun to throw harder and feature better stuff than ever, Tommy John surgery is becoming more common.
“Guys that throw hard and everything, it’s almost a matter of time in a lot of circumstances because they do throw so hard all the time,” Snitker said. “Eventually, (the elbow) goes – it happens to most of them. And it’s never a good time. But I’m glad he’s getting it cleaned up and taken care of now instead of waiting because I know you can wait and get injections or whatever, and they end up breaking, anyway.”
Last year, the Braves drafted Burkhalter with the No. 76 overall pick – the compensation pick they received after losing Freddie Freeman. He reached Low-A and was excited for the coming season.
“Just a bunch of experience and (a sense of) kind of how the game’s played in professional baseball as opposed to college baseball and stuff like that,” Burkhalter said when asked in a recent interview what he hopes to gain from this year. “I can hone in on all my skills.”
Burkhalter was a reliever in college, but the Braves view him as a starter. He throws a cutter, a four-seam fastball, a change-up and a slider. The cutter is his best offering. He picked up the slider a few weeks ago.
The surgery will keep him out of baseball for this season, but he could still feature tons of potential upon his return.
“A year from now, he’ll probably be starting his ascent,” Snitker said.
