Connor Prielipp to Undergo Tommy John Surgery

The sophomore ace for the Crimson Tide will miss the remainder of the 2021 season

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama baseball sophomore pitcher Connor Prielipp will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the remainder of the 2021 season. The surgery will take place on Thursday and will be conducted by Dr. Lyle Cain of Andrews Sports Medicine.

The news was first reported by Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.

Prielipp, a 2021 Preseason First Team All-American, was highly regarded as the top MLB prospect for the 2022 class. He will now not be able to pitch in the spring of his draft year.

Last fall, Prielipp was up to 96 miles per hour with his fastball and was dominating the season. However, once spring arrived, Prielipp started on opening day vanished from the mound soon after, not starting again until almost two months later against Auburn. Even then, Prielipp was only able to pitch one inning before having to leave the game.

In total, Prielipp had three starts in the 2021 season, but two of those starts following opening day consisted of just one inning on the mound.

Crimson Tide head coach Brad Bohannon had this to say about Prielipp's performance last fall:

“Everything has gotten better — like, way faster than normal,” Bohannon said. “The breaking ball is shorter and tighter and it doesn’t come up out of the hand, it almost looks a little more cutterish now, last year it was more like a true slider, slurvy. You just can’t predict at what rate a guy is going to improve, and he’s just on a really steep rate. I would say the changeup is his third pitch but it’s a legitimate pitch now. He didn’t throw a lot of changeups in games last year. You know, he’s from Tomah, Wisconsin — he didn’t throw a changeup in a high school game, there’s no need to slow the ball down.

"So he’s a legitimate three-pitch guy, he’s commanding the ball better.”

In his first start of the season against McNeese State, Prielipp tossed five shutout innings and allowed just four hits, walked none and struck out eight batters.

While fellow starter Antoine Jean has missed a lot of action as well this season with a shoulder impingement, he is expected to return this summer to the Cape Cod League.

For Prielipp, however, his time on the mound is done for the foreseeable future.