Atlanta Braves right-hander Ian Anderson has a torn UCL in his pitching elbow and will soon undergo Tommy John surgery, ESPN reports. As a consequence, Anderson will miss the remainder of the 2023 season and aim for a return in 2024.
Anderson, who turns 25 in early May, has been in Triple-A to begin the season. He struggled badly in his lone start for Gwinnett, and that came after a rough spring and a 2022 season that saw him pitch to a disappointing 5.00 ERA and 1.80 K/BB ratio in 22 starts for Atlanta. Anderson was not so long ago a very promising young arm.
The former No. 3 overall pick in 2016 developed into a consensus top-10 overall prospect before he arrived in the majors. In his first 30 starts at the highest level, spread across the 2020 and 2021 seasons, Anderson put up an ERA of 3.25 with more strikeouts than innings pitching.
Fantasy Baseball Today Newsletter
Your Cheat Code To Fantasy Baseball
You're destined to gain an edge over your friends with advice from the award-winning FBT crew.
Thanks for signing up!
Keep an eye on your inbox.
Sorry!
There was an error processing your subscription.
Since then, however, his performance has trended in the opposite direction. It's likely that a degrading elbow has played a prominent role in those struggles, and the hope is that Anderson can resume realizing his potential as a core rotation piece once he's fully healed.
The loss of Anderson as potential depth during the season is a significant blow to an Atlanta rotation that's already dealing with injuries to Max Fried (hamstring) and Kolby Allard (oblique). As well, right-hander Huascar Ynoa, who made a total of 19 starts for the Braves in 2021 and 2022 is sidelined after undergoing a Tommy John procedure of his own in September of last year.
