Drey Jameson to get second opinion on UCL injury
Drey Jameson is getting second opinions on his elbow injury this week, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said Saturday.
The right-hander was transferred from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day injured list in a series of moves before the Diamondbacks’ game against the Pirates. To round out the transactions, left-hander Tyler Gilbert had his contract selected from Triple-A Reno while outfielder Kyle Lewis was optioned.
The most important news, though, centers around Jameson after initial imaging revealed concerns with his elbow. Lovullo did not go into detail about what that entails, but did confirm that Jameson’s ulnar collateral ligament is “the area we’re looking at.” A tear to that ligament would require Tommy John Surgery, which would sideline Jameson until late in the 2024 season, if not until 2025 spring training.
“There’s stuff there that needs to be thoroughly looked at before we can start to make a firm judgment,” Lovullo said. “There’s something in there. Something’s going on.”
Lovullo said that Jameson’s workload in Thursday’s game — when he got hurt — was not an issue, but that the injury could stem from his varying roles throughout this season. He spent spring training as a starter before being moved to the bullpen, then back to a starting role and then finally back to the bullpen was he was recalled from Triple-A in late May.
“We asked a lot of him,” Lovullo said. “We asked him to start and get stretched out and then we put him into a bullpen situation where he made the team, then we asked him to start again. We felt like we could do that one. We triggered that one time. And we felt like the indicators were that he’d be fine. We’re trying to piece together how it went wrong right now.”
Lovullo also acknowledged that injuries can happen at any time and there’s a possibility that Jameson’s injury was not a result of anything the Diamondbacks did.
“Sometimes guys get hurt and it’s going to happen whether they throw one inning or four innings,” Lovullo said. “I know that. But this one we need to take a look at because of what we asked him to do start/relieve, start/relieve.”
Jameson initially injured himself on a pitch to Tommy Pham on Thursday. He immediately winced and was visited by Lovullo, pitching coach Brent Strom and trainer Max Esposito. He reported that he was feeling cramping in his right hand, but nothing in his elbow. That prompted the staff to leave him in for the rest of the inning, in which he threw 17 more pitches.
Lovullo was told that those extra pitches did not impact Jameson’s injury and that “the damage had already been done.” Still, he said the experience offered a learning lesson.
“I’m kicking myself for thinking it was just a finger/hand cramp and putting him in the game to let him throw (17) more pitches,” Lovullo said. “That can’t happen. That’s something I’ve got to get better at, 100 percent.”
Jameson struggled at times as a starter early in the season, but had become an important multi-inning option in the bullpen. Across his two stints as a reliever this season, he had a 2.81 ERA with 29 strikeouts and 11 walks in 32.0 innings.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Drey Jameson to get second opinion on UCL injury
