Brendan McKay to have season ending shoulder surgery

One of the biggest bummers about baseball in 2020 has been the injuries that we have seen both from carryover from the offseason as well as from injuries on the field once the season got back underway. Some of these surgeries were guys that knew that they needed surgery and decided that missing this season was the best option available and other injuries have been flukes and others could be because players did not have the normal amount of time to get stretched back out and into game shape.

Players such as Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, Madison Bumgarner, Mike Soroka, Andrew Benintendi, Chris Sale, Noah Syndergaard, Mike Moustakas, Michael Brantley, Justin Verlander, Andrelton Simmons, and Josh Donaldson have all seen significant time on the injured list and that doesn’t include the guys that have had to miss time due to COVID-19.

Add Brendan McKay to the list.

McKay has been considered one of the game’s best young prospects. Drafted as a potential two-way player due to his power potential at the plate, McKay was going to be relied upon by Tampa to help anchor a rotation for one of the better teams, at least on paper, in the entire league.

Unfortunately, the team shut him down earlier with shoulder tightness and has been bothered by shoulder issues in the recent past. Once he returned from the league shutdown and then from testing positive for COVID-19, McKay had been working on getting stretched back out to join the rotation before his shoulder started acting up.

As Topkin reported, the team is hopeful that McKay will be ready for the start of 2021, but that depends entirely on the nature of the repair required.