Chicago White Sox relief pitcher Edgar Navarro will undergo Tommy John surgery early next month, according to team officials. This means he will miss the entire 2024 season and may also be sidelined at the start of the 2025 season.
Navarro, 26, made his debut in the major leagues with the White Sox in 2023, pitching a total of 8 2/3 innings out of the bullpen. During this short stint, he struggled, giving up seven runs on 11 hits and two walks, with only nine strikeouts. Most of the damage occurred in one particularly bad outing where he allowed five runs in just one inning of work. In December, the team removed him from the 40-man roster to make room for new signing Erick Fedde. Since injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, Navarro’s removal from the roster suggests that this injury is a recent occurrence that happened during the offseason.
In the minor leagues, Navarro has had better success in preventing runs, but his strikeout and walk rates have still been inconsistent. In 2023, he posted a combined ERA of 3.59 between Double-A and Triple-A, but only struck out 19% of his opponents while walking 16.1% of them. Navarro has relied heavily on his sinker, which averages 93.6 mph, and has induced ground balls at a high rate both in the minors (59.8%) and in the majors (53.8%). However, if he wants to succeed at the highest level of the game, he will need to significantly improve his strikeout-to-walk ratio. Unfortunately, the upcoming surgery will delay his ability to work on this aspect of his game for at least a year.
Navarro has never been considered one of the top prospects in the White Sox organization, largely due to his lack of command. While he has shown flashes of being able to miss bats and generate ground balls, he has also struggled with control. Throughout his professional career, he has walked 12.8% of his opponents and hit an astonishing 44 batters in 273 innings pitched. Overall, he has allowed 16.2% of his opponents to reach base without even making contact with the ball.
According to the Source mlbtraderumors.com