An elbow injury prevented Manuel Banuelos from helping the Yankees this season and now Tommy John surgery will knock him out of 2013 as well.
The 21-year-old lefty is scheduled to have the surgery tomorrow. Recovery time for pitchers is typically one year.
“It’s unfortunate, but it’s obviously a part of the game,” general manager Brian Cashman said of the organization’s top pitching prospect. “Hopefully, after surgery and rehab, he’ll be ready to go. The success rate from this is very high here. Plenty of pitchers have come back from this.”
After Banuelos dealt with the elbow problem for the first two months of the season, the Yankees shut him down for good in August, hoping the elbow would heal on its own and he could come back for winter ball.
“It’s like [Brett] Gardner,” Cashman said of the left fielder who just returned after missing nearly all of 2012 with an elbow injury. “At the beginning, surgery isn’t on the radar, but then it continues to fail and the next thing is surgery.’’
Banuelos was limited to just six starts for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes Barre, the last on May 18, and finished 0-2 with a 4.50 ERA. Banuelos had an MRI exam last week and Dr. James Andrews and team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad discussed the options.
Joba Chamberlain returned from the procedure this summer to mixed results. Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg was having a Cy Young-caliber season after 2011 Tommy John surgery before being shut down due to an innings limit.
Still, given the Yankees’ difficulty developing pitchers, losing Banuelos for a full season is another significant setback.
“It’s not what you want to see out of your young players who have a bright future for you,” manager Joe Girardi said. “But guys have had setbacks and went on to have great careers. He has the opportunity to heal up and get strong and be a factor after that. It’s frustrating for him and frustrating for us, but he has to make the most of it.’’
—Additional reporting by George A. King III