Brandon
Beachy May
Need Second Tommy John Surgery
The Braves have already experienced a critical blow to their rotation with the
likelihood that
Kris Medlen will have to undergo
Tommy John Surgery for a
Second time. **w, the biceps tightness that right-hander
Brandon Beachy felt in his most recent Spring Training outing may lead to a worst-case scenario outcome as well; MLB.com's Mark Bowman reports that
Beachy could also be in line for his
Second Tommy John surgery. According to Bowman,
Beachy was apparently told that the injury was confined to his biceps earlier in the week, which is why he conveyed such confidence to the media on Monday when asked about his ailing arm (
Twitter links).
Bowman tweets that both Medlen and
Beachy will meet with Dr. James Andrews on Monday, with Medlen likely receiving a final opinion after having already met with Andrews earlier in the week. The loss of both Medlen and
Beachy would be crushing to the Braves, although it would be somewhat offset by the team's recent
one-year signing of
Ervin Santana. Still, even with Santana in the mix, the club would go from a projected rotation of Medlen, Beachy,
Julio Teheran,
Mike Mi**r and
Alex Wood/
Gavin Floyd to Teheran, Mi**r, Santana, Wood and a combination of Floyd,
Freddy Garcia and
David Hale. And of course, Mi**r is expected to miss the first two weeks of the season as well.
Beachy first underwent
Tommy John Surgery midway through a breakout 2012 campaign in which he posted an even 2.00 ERA over his first 81 innings. He rehabbed from the
Surgery and made a respectable return effort in 2013, posting a 4.50 ERA over 30 innings. Medlen's previous
Tommy John Surgery was performed back in August of 2010.
