Injury updates: Waldichuk to have elbow surgery Wednesday

A bunch of bad news, but a bit of good news as wel

The pitching depth for the Athletics is really being tested early on in the 2024 campaign. After placing Paul Blackburn on the injured list this morning, the club gave updates to reporter Martin Gallegos on a few other key injuries:

The Waldichuk news is the most disappointing outcome for the young lefty. Waldichuk had elbow surgery at the end of last season after experiencing pain during his final appearance of the year. The hope was that he’d avoided a major injury to his elbow and there were some positive updates early on during the winter and spring training.

Things have taken a turn for the worse however as Waldichuk was shut down after throwing a 25-pitch bullpen session a couple weeks ago. He reportedly met with renowned surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache today and the fact that surgery is already scheduled doesn’t bode well for Waldichuk. The exact surgery isn’t known but it feels safe to say that Waldichuk won’t be a factor for the Athletics in 2024. Fingers crossed he can avoided the dreaded Tommy John surgery.

Elsewhere, we learned that Blackburn would be in a walking boot for two weeks. At least we have some sort of idea for a timetable for him now. This particular foot injury can take a long time to heal and we may not see him back for at least a month, likely more. Blackburn will definitely need a rehab start or two before he’ll rejoin the club. Let’s just hope they don’t take that boot off too early and make this a season-long issue. Blackburn is too important to the starting staff right now.

Sticking with the starting staff, lefty veteran Alex Wood is now away from the team as he has his shoulder examined back in Oakland. Wood was shelled in his last start and both he and manager Mark Kotsay told reporters that he’d been dealing with this for some time, yet pushing through and pitching with the problem. Not sure why, but alright. The results were evident though and now Wood will finally have his shoulder checked out. Shoulder injuries can be serious but we’ll all have to keep our fingers crossed that it’s not too significant. The starting pitching depth is really being tested as is.

Fellow starting pitcher Luis Medina meanwhile is the only one of the starters to have gotten a good update today. The young righty is set to throw 45 pitches in Arizona on Wednesday. Recovering from a knee sprain sustained during spring training, the righty is heading in the right direction and continues to make steady progress in his rehab. Next steps will be facing live batters and then a rehab stint in Triple-A. We shouldn’t hold our breaths for an imminent Medina return but he’ll provide a nice boost to a starting staff that is going through it right now.

And finally, on the more positive side of things, second baseman Zack Gelof has rejoined the team in Houston:

It’s fantastic news as there was worry that Gelof’s oblique issue could cost him months, not weeks. Instead the young second baseman returns to the club after missing the past 18 games (19 after tonight). He hasn’t had the best start to the season to this point but the hope is this down time has allowed him to get a sort of reset in. The club has gotten great production out of Abraham Toro but this team needs Zack Gelof back. Let’s hope we see the second-half Gelof from last year when he returns to the field.