A.J. Russell to Have Tommy John Surgery

[NighthawkVol]

I am curious if he will need to prove his worth in college or if the pros will still pay him based on what he has shown so far.

Seems to me his best course is to sit and recover for a year, then come back to UT and pitch in 2026. He wasn’t drafted out of high school and he’s barely pitched in college.

 

[VOLfrombama]

Good luck and Godspeed AJ. Hope to see you pitch again someday.

 

[VAVolsFan2009]

Wishing AJ a successful procedure, quick recovery, and successful rehab. AJ will have no shortage of support from Vol Nation and his teammates.

 

[Ttucke11]

The science is still not great on a lot of the treatments of this injury. PRP, internal bracing, repair, etc.

Sometimes it’s better to go ahead and get the UCL reconstructed. It is delaying the inevitable with some of this stuff

You see it all the time in the pros. Sore elbow, rest, rehab going well, tries to pitch, setback, tests, TJ months later. Clockwork at this point. The science behind the elbow is still somehow way behind.

 

[volfan411]

Prayers for a successful surgery and a speedy recovery!!

 

[rockytop25]

Seems to me his best course is to sit and recover for a year, then come back to UT and pitch in 2026. He wasn’t drafted out of high school and he’s barely pitched in college.

Unpopular opinion: I think Hoover was the last time we’ll see AJ pitch in a Tennessee uniform. I think he’s shown enough that a team will take him somewhat early (2-3 round or so) next year and he’ll be gone. He’s already had TJ by that point, he’ll want to take the money while he can.

 

[butchna]

I am curious if he will need to prove his worth in college or if the pros will still pay him based on what he has shown so far.

See Spencer Strider story.

 

[butchna]

Seems to me his best course is to sit and recover for a year, then come back to UT and pitch in 2026. He wasn’t drafted out of high school and he’s barely pitched in college.

Somebody will bet on the upside and jump reasonably early. Then he can concentrate on recovering and developing in a controlled professional setting.

 

[AllThingsTN]

Hate it for him, I know he wants to be out there. Will he still be a high draft pick without playing most of this year and next year? Would he potentially come back to pitch the following season? Not sure what the norm is in this situation.

Nvm I see it’s already been discussed.

 

[HoptownVol]

Send him to Ben Joyce's doctor.

 

[txbo]

His stuff was absolutely electric against Texas Tech. Baseball fandom deserves to watch a healthy AJ pitch for a long time.

 

[DPMVOLS]

Are you implying negligence by the coaching and training staff? These are tricky things. Feel like they were as cautious with rest and milestones as they could possibly be.

I don't think he was implying negligence, but you sure did.

 

[chuckiepoo]

Are you implying negligence by the coaching and training staff? These are tricky things. Feel like they were as cautious with rest and milestones as they could possibly be.

Not sure negligence should be mentioned. MLB has only recently moved away from rest and rehab for ucl injuries. Astros screwed around with McCullers a couple of years ago and he’s still not back yet. Recently put two starters on long term IL following surgery.

 

[ColinS]

Unpopular opinion: I think Hoover was the last time we’ll see AJ pitch in a Tennessee uniform. I think he’s shown enough that a team will take him somewhat early (2-3 round or so) next year and he’ll be gone. He’s already had TJ by that point, he’ll want to take the money while he can.

Yeah, if I'm him I get the surgery and take a stab at a pro career.

 

[ColinS]

Not sure negligence should be mentioned. MLB has only recently moved away from rest and rehab for ucl injuries. Astros screwed around with McCullers a couple of years ago and he’s still not back yet. Recently put two starters on long term IL following surgery.

They are doing a new brace surgery with a quicker recovery as well but I'm not sure what instances it can be used. Spencer Strider just had this.

 

[preacherman20]

I have not read all of this, but I did read a few comments that seemed to say that the coaching staff or doctors of the team should have done something. Knowing this situation very closely, they have done multiple tests over the last several months trying to find out if there was any problems and what it was, and it did not show until just recently. They had discussions earlier about doing something, but chose not to since the test did not show it. They were hoping it was not a tear but it finally did.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

I have not read all of this, but I did read a few comments that seemed to say that the coaching staff or doctors of the team should have done something. Knowing this situation very closely, they have done multiple tests over the last several months trying to find out if there was any problems and what it was, and it did not show until just recently. They had discussions earlier about doing something, but chose not to since the test did not show it. They were hoping it was not a tear but it finally did.

Knowing how cautious Tony has treated arm injuries in his 7 years here, I had zero concern that he handled this “the wrong way.” I’m sure he and Frank have done everything they can to support AJ. I think that is evidenced with how quickly they sat him down early in the season and didn’t bring him back till basically June.

 

[Volfan1000]

I feel like this needs its own thread.

Good luck to Russell on his surgery.

 

[minorvol]

Hate this for him. Great kid and a great family. Prayers for a complete and speedy recovery.

 

[AthensVol2007]

That sucks. He'll likely miss the majority, if not all of next season, now. Wish they had pursued this route when he originally hurt the arm and we might have him back for the latter half of next season.

The original issue was an armpit/oblique issue though. It might have been a precursor to this that was “missed” but the elbow didn’t appear to be an issue until the SECG outing.

 

[LordVOLdemort]

That sucks! Win it all for AJ!!!

 

[turbovol]

That sucks. He'll likely miss the majority, if not all of next season, now. Wish they had pursued this route when he originally hurt the arm and we might have him back for the latter half of next season.

Agree: One wonders why they didn't reach the surgery conclusion 3 months ago. They apparently thought that he could somehow rehab the torn UCL.

 

[AthensVol2007]

It’s not surprising, really. TJ surgery almost feels too commonplace these days. And it’s almost exclusive to guys that through with relatively high velocity like AJ. I know correlation doesn’t equal causation, but man this has felt like a trend in the MLB this year and it’s only impacting more and more players now.

I wonder how much it has to do with just how much kids throw these days and how young they start. I remember coming up in Little League, kid pitching started in “major league” which was 10-12 yrs old and very few of us were pitching at 10; 90% of the pitching was handled by the 12 year olds. Now, most organizations/affiliations and especially the travel ball circuit start kid pitch at 9U. That’s just an additional 2-3 years of wear and tear on arms, coupled with the private lessons and year round travel circuit it’s a lot of arm use.

 

[Zues1]

It's quite possible AJ was trying to avoid the surgery.

 

[Redleg68]

I wonder how much it has to do with just how much kids throw these days and how young they start. I remember coming up in Little League, kid pitching started in “major league” which was 10-12 yrs old and very few of us were pitching at 10; 90% of the pitching was handled by the 12 year olds. Now, most organizations/affiliations and especially the travel ball circuit start kid pitch at 9U. That’s just an additional 2-3 years of wear and tear on arms, coupled with the private lessons and year round travel circuit it’s a lot of arm use.

One of the biggest problems is that these young kids throw way too much breaking stuff. They should not throw breaking stuff until 13 or 14 and then it should be limited. Teach them location and off speed. That’s all they need to throw in Little League.