LOS ANGELES (AP) — Joe Musgrove needs Tommy John surgery and won’t pitch for the San Diego Padres in the NL Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. The right-hander has an ulnar collateral ligament injury, A.J.
Preller, the Padres president of baseball operations, said Friday. Recovery typically takes 12 to 18 months, meaning Musgrove could miss the entire 2025 season. “I'm devastated about not being able to finish what we started,” an emotional Musgrove said in the Padres dugout.
“It's just a matter of coming to grips with that this is it for me.” Musgrove is the latest in a series of MLB pitchers who've sustained UCL injuries this season, including Atlanta's Spencer Strider, Cleveland's Shane Bieber and Toronto's Alek Manoah. Musgrove left Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series with elbow tightness.
He threw two slow curveballs to fall behind 2-1 on Atlanta's Matt Olson with two outs in the fourth and was visited by pitching coach Ruben Niebla. Padres manager Mike Shildt and an athletic trainer joined them, and Musgrove came out. “If you’re not a pitcher, it’s very difficult to explain.
I just had a hard time getting to full extension and letting pitches go,” Musgrove said Wednesday. “There wasn’t a whole lot of confidence behind it. I had two outs in the inning.
I was hoping to be able to get through the inning and then address it in between, but I didn’t make it to that point.” Musgrove had been pitching through discomfort for a couple of w.