White Sox reliever Edgar Navarro is slated to bear Tommy John surgical procedure in early March, the group introduced to reporters Tuesday night (X link by way of Scott Merkin of MLB.com). He’ll miss the 2024 season consequently and might be sidelined early in 2025 as effectively.
Navarro, 26, made his large league debut with the ChiSox in 2023, pitching 8 2/3 innings out of supervisor Pedro Grifol’s bullpen. He was tagged for seven runs on 11 hits and a pair of walks with 9 punchouts in that transient cup of espresso, with the majority of the harm coming in a single nightmare outing that noticed him yield 5 runs in a lone inning of labor. Chicago outrighted him off the 40-man roster in December to clear a roster spot for free-agent signee Erick Fedde. Injured gamers can’t be positioned on outright waivers, so the truth that Navarro was outrighted a pair months again suggests it is a new damage that occurred within the offseason.
Within the higher minors, Navarro has loved higher run prevention however nonetheless displayed shaky strikeout and stroll tendencies. He notched a mixed 3.59 ERA between Double-A and Triple-A in 2023 however did so whereas fanning simply 19% of his opponents in opposition to a 16.1% stroll charge. Navarro stored the ball on an enormous 59.8% clip within the minors and at a 53.8% clip within the large leagues, leaning onerous on a sinker that averaged 93.6 mph. That’s an encouraging trait, however he’ll must drastically enhance his Ok-BB profile if he’s to search out sustained success on the recreation’s high degree. The damage in query will stop his means to refine that Ok-BB profile for a minimum of the subsequent 12 months.
Navarro has by no means been thought of among the many White Sox’ high prospects, due in no small half to his poor command. He’s proven the power to overlook bats at instances and has persistently piled up grounders at borderline elite ranges, however the 6’1″ righty has additionally walked 12.8% of his opponents throughout all skilled ranges and plunked a whopping 44 batters in 273 skilled innings. In all, he’s allowed 16.2% of his opponents to succeed in base with out even placing a ball in play.
