This wasn’t the news the Miami Marlins needed to hear. With a mediocre farm system already in place and a lack of top pitching talent to count on at the moment, the Miami Marlins have shut down their top pitching prospect, Braxton Garrett, who may need Tommy John surgery.
A report on by Andre C. Fernandez states a major league baseball source told the Miami Herald on Wednesday that left-handed pitcher Braxton Garrett, the franchise’s top-ranked prospect, has a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow, which may require Tommy John surgery.
The news would effectively end the pitcher’s 2017 season and would further impede progress into 2018.
Garrett was shut down shortly after his most recent start for Single A Greensboro on May 25.
The Marlins selected Garrett, a high school star out of Florence, Alabama, with the seventh overall selection in last year’s draft.
Should Garrett have the surgery, he would become the Marlins’ second first-round pick and top-rated prospect at the time of their injury to undergo Tommy John in a little over a year.
Tyler Kolek, their 2014 first-round pick taken No. 2 overall out of Shepherd, Texas, missed the 2016 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery following a subpar 2015 season in the minors.
In an effort to build its MLB roster, the Marlins traded away pitcher Luis Castillo and Austin Brice. The team released Jake Esch before the start of the season. Another top pitching prospect, Dillon Peters, is dealing with a fractured thumb that he suffered while pitching for the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, the Miami Marlins Double-A affiliate in the Southern League.
The Marlins have the 13th pick in the first round of Monday’s MLB Draft. The team could look at add another arm for the future.
Garrett has made four starts at Greensboro this year, going 1-0 with a 2.93 ERA, 16 strikeouts and six walks in 15 1/3 innings pitched.
But his most recent outing ended after only 1 2/3 innings in which he allowed four runs on six hits, including two home runs.