Arizona Diamondbacks 2024 Player Review: Kyle Nelson

The lefty's season was truncated by a serious condition requiring surgery

Apr 1, 2024; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Kyle Nelson against the New York Yankees at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

This article is part of a series chronicling the individual seasons of players who appeared for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2024.

Reviews for players that still have rookie eligibility for 2025 will appear in our prospect season reviews. Players are presented in the reverse order of their aWAR, an average of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs WAR.

LHP Kyle Nelson, Age 27

2024 Contract Status: Pre Arb $757,300

Kyle Nelson 2024 and Career Stats / Jack Sommers

Kyle Nelson was selected off waivers by the Diamondbacks from the Cleveland Guardians back in November of 2021. He was excellent in 2022, posting a 2.19 ERA. In 2023 Nelson was having a good season through the end of August with a 3.14 ERA, but a bad September ballooned his ERA to 4.18 by season's end.

Due to the emergence of Andrew Saalfrank in September, Nelson was left off the Wild Card and NLDS roster. He appeared in both the NLCS and World Series, however, throwing five innings and giving up four runs, but just two earned.

Nelson entered Spring Training camp in 2024 in competition with Saalfrank for a bullpen roster spot. Nelson pitched well in spring, while Saalfrank struggled with command. The roster spot went to Nelson.

Nelson started out great. He was un-scored upon in his first eight outings. In 9.1 innings he allowed just three hits and two walks while striking out seven. Then all of a sudden he was scored against in three straight outings.

Nelson had a disastrous outing in Chicago on April 16th. He allowed two inherited runners to score and three of his on a homer by Ian Happ in a six run Cubs seventh inning. The D-backs went on to win that game in extra innings however.

Nelson gave up single runs in each of his next two outings. Then on April 23rd he was placed on the Injured List with what was described as left shoulder inflammation. It turned out to be much worse than . On April 30 Torey Lovullo announced that Nelson would be having Thoracic Outlet Surgery.

There are two types of TOS, and Nelson's was described as Neurogenic TOS, which occurs when the nerves leading from the neck to the arm (the brachial plexus) is compressed.

According to the MLB Glossary: "During surgery to correct Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, both the first rib -- the uppermost of the ribs, which is attached to the first thoracic vertebrae at the base of the neck, angles down and connects to the sternum just below the collarbone -- and the scalene muscles are removed to clear space for the nerves in the thoracic outlet."

Nelson managed to resume a throwing program and bullpen sessions by September, but did not pitch again during the regular season.

2025 Outlook

Nelson is expected to be ready for Spring Training and will be competing for an opening day roster spot once again. He is first year arbitration eligible in 2025 and is projected to earn approximately $800K.

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