Top Guardians prospect Espino (shoulder surgery) out 12-14 months
NEW YORK — Once once more, the Guardians have obtained less-than-ideal news about their high prospect.
On Tuesday, right-hander Daniel Espino underwent proper shoulder surgical procedure (anterior capsule restore) in Los Angeles. He’s anticipated to return to recreation exercise in 12 to 14 months.
It’s been over a 12 months since Espino first went on Double-A Akron’s injured record with patellar tendinitis. As he was recovering from that, Espino ended up struggling a shoulder damage that is saved him on the sidelines ever since. He has but to even throw off the rubber.
The Guardians have been hoping that Espino was lastly on his manner again over the previous couple of months. He had one other setback along with his shoulder earlier than Spring Training bought underway, however he was capable of start some gentle baseball actions. As he elevated the depth and distance in his catch routines, Espino’s shoulder flared up once more. That’s when the group decided it was finest for Espino to go to a health care provider as a substitute of simply giving him some extra down time.
On Monday, Espino visited with Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who decided it was finest for the right-hander to bear surgical procedure. And now, after having already missed the final 12 months, he’ll be out of recreation exercise for at the least one other 12 months.
Espino was so spectacular earlier than he landed on the injured record that he was undoubtedly MLB Pipeline’s high Guardians prospect. He additionally entered the 12 months because the No. 14 prospect on Pipeline’s total Top 100 record. He pitched to a mixed 3.73 ERA with 152 strikeouts in 91 2/3 innings between Single-A Lynchburg and High-A Lake County in 2021. At the start of ’22 with Akron, Espino racked up 35 strikeouts in 18 1/3 frames, together with a 14-strikeout efficiency on April 23 — simply earlier than he was shut down.
Espino simply turned 22 years outdated in January. He has time to bounce again, however it’s going to be even more durable now that he’ll have missed two consecutive years of improvement. Will he be capable of stay a starter and tackle a heavy workload? Will he be capable of choose up the place he left off? How a lot time does it take to make up for 2 years on the sidelines?
Espino’s future abruptly turned lots more durable to foretell.
