BREAKING: Ian Anderson to undergo Tommy John surgery

The Braves righthander has been sidelined since the first week of the AAA season with elbow soreness

Braves righthander Ian Anderson will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2023 season, reported ESPN's Jeff Passan on Tuesday morning.

Atlanta Braves right-hander Ian Anderson will undergo Tommy John surgery, sources tell me and @kileymcd. After a difficult 2022 season, Anderson started the year at AAA and struggled in his first start before being diagnosed with a torn UCL. He's expected to return in 2024.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 11, 2023

Anderson was drafted by Atlanta 3rd overall in the 2016 draft out of high school and debuted in August 2020, quickly becoming an integral part of the Braves rotation. After finishing the year 3-2 with a 1.95 ERA in six starts, he was a full-season starter in 2021, going 9-5 with a 3.58 ERA and taking the ball for game three of the World Series, holding the Houston Astros to no hits and just three walks over his five innings of work in a game that Atlanta went on to win, 2-0, to take a 2-1 series lead on their way to an eventual World Series championship. 

But Anderson struggled mightily in 2022, putting up a 5.00 ERA in his 22 starts at the major league level before being demoted to AAA Gwinnett. Thought to be a contender for the 5th starter's job in spring training, he was quickly demoted to AAA midway through spring training when it was evident prospects Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd were performing well enough that it would be a two-man competition. 

Anderson's AAA campaign didn't start the way he hoped - in his only start, versus the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, he didn't get out of the 1st inning and was charged with six runs on four hits and two walks in only 2/3rds of an inning, and hasn't pitched since April 2nd. 

Typical recovery time from a Tommy John procedure, done to repair a tear to the ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow, is 15-18 months. Most pitchers don't truly regain their form until two full years after the surgery, so the first time to reasonably expect Anderson to contribute on the major league roster would be 2025 (assuming he has the full TJ procedure and not the newer "internal brace" procedure, which has a shorter recovery time but is usually not done on pitchers, but rather position players.)

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