In the “where the heck did that come from” sports story of the day, Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Sonny Gray had arthroscopic surgery on his pitching elbow earlier today. Seems that all of the local beat writers found out at the same time, but it was C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic who was the fastest typer among the group and had it first.
Sonny Gray had arthroscopic surgery today in his right elbow. He should have no effect on off-season plans
— C. Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent) September 25, 2019
The good news of course is that it was just arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies (this was later reported by Mark Sheldon of Reds.com) and nothing of structural integrity in the right-handed pitchers elbow.
On Monday it was announced that yesterday would be the final start of the year for Sonny Gray. He would have been due up again for the final game of the year if the rotation held true. Manager David Bell said that it would be a bullpen day to close out the season instead. It seems that we now know why that was.
With his season complete, we can look back at it and say that it was nothing but an unmitigated success. He made every start asked of him on the season and he posted an ERA of 2.87 while throwing 175.1 innings pitched. Sonny Gray posted a 1.08 WHIP while giving up just 122 hits – and just 17 home runs in a juiced ball era. His 205 strikeouts allowed him to join teammate Luis Castillo in the 200 strikeout club. They are the first Cincinnati Reds teammates in the long history of the franchise to record 200 strikeouts in the same season. Oh yeah, he also made his second All-Star team.
The Reds, man. They sure are tight lipped. O.K., sure, everything is gonna be allright.
Here it comes…surgeries, injuries will pop up Reds do have their problems. But wait another 8 to 10 years of rebuilding. For the players that do have surgery and/or injury I do hope they recover fully.