Phillies news and rumors 4/25: Prior offseason target to have Tommy John surgery

Robert Stephenson pitched for the Rays in 2023. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire)

The epidemic of pitcher injuries has hit a prior Phillies offseason target. Robert Stephenson, whom the club targeted this January, is getting Tommy John surgery and will miss the remainder of this season — plus the start of the next.

Stephenson, who signed a three-year, $33 million contract with the Angels, didn’t make an appearance for Los Angeles this regular season. He began feeling pain in his elbow while rehabbing a shoulder injury, his only appearance of the year, and the UCL damage will cost him his season. With velocity and the demand for increased flamethrowing ability at the forefront of the pitching injury conversation these days, it’s worth noting that Stephenson’s fastball was in the 90th percentile for average velocity last season at 96.8 mph.

Stephenson’s contract features a unique stipulation: The Angels get an option for the 2027 season if Stephenson suffers an elbow injury that causes him to miss 130 straight days, as noted by MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger. That, of course, will go into effect, meaning the Angels can decide after 2026 whether to keep him for $2.5 million the following season.

The point here certainly isn’t to identify a silver lining for the Angels, because that it is not. The point is that contracts with clauses such as Stephenson’s might become more commonplace given today’s pitching climate and wave of Tommy John surgery occurrences across the sport. It’s unfortunate it’s gotten to that point, and Stephenson is just the latest example of a problem MLB needs to figure out some way to fix, whatever that might be.

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