Cincinnati Reds free agent reliever Drew Storen undergoes surgery

Cincinnati Reds Drew Storen has Tommy John surgery to repair Ulnar Collateral Ligament tear.

On Tuesday, September 26, Cincinnati Reds reliever Drew Storen had Tommy John surgery.  Reds medical director Dr. Timothy Kremchek performed the procedure.  Storen is expected to be out 9-12 months not including the time it takes to re-establish the skill that is required to throw a baseball at the MLB level.

Storen signed a $3-million contract in January to join the Reds potentially as the closer.  The signing partnered Storen with former teammate, catcher Tucker Barnhart.  Both of them attended high school in Indiana.

Storen threw 54 1/3 innings over 58 appearances for the Reds.  He earned a 4-2 record to go with an ERA of 4.45.  He struck out 48, while walking 23.

Storen’s WHIP of 1.46 was a bit high for a reliever.  That has more to do with walks than his .271 batting average against(BAA).  Storen also allowed 57 hits of which seven were home runs.

For his career Storen has an ERA of 3.45 and a WHIP of 1.19.  He has 99 saves and a record of 29-18.  Prior to pitching for the Reds, he pitched for the Washington Nationals, the Seattle Mariners, and the Toronto Blue Jays.

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Storen’s best year was 2011.  That season he pitched in 73 games, collecting 43 saves.  His WHIP was 1.02 in large part to a career low BAA of .204.  The following year he had an elbow flare-up that wasn’t significant until now.

The Cincinnati Reds may not admit it, but you could see something was wrong with Drew Storen all of August.

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Storen didn’t have his best month in July.  He had an ERA of 4.82 and only pitched 9 1/3 innings.  He allowed five runs including a whopping three home runs in July.

Then August showed up and the wheels fell off.  In August Storen pitched 12 innings with an ERA of 8.42.  His WHIP was 2.08 in a large part due to a BAA of .367.

In thirteen games Storen allowed 11 earned runs.  He had only allowed fifteen earned runs in the four previous months combined.  He also walked a season high for any single month of seven.

It is difficult to tell how long he was injured before the discovery.  In the last two years his average fastball velocity has dropped from just under 95 to just over 90.  He throws a hard sinker that has seen roughly the same drop in velocity.

Usually a three mile per hour drop in velocity is enough to look for an injury.  His change-up dropped from about 88 to about 84 miles per hours over the past two seasons.  Something was wrong with Storen.

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Potentially, the Reds could have traded him in July pre-injury and continued the rebuild.  Now, he is injured and the Reds are in no better a place than before.  Here is to a fast and safe recovery to health for the Reds reliever.