Pirates right-hander Max Kranick underwent Tommy John surgery yesterday, Jason Mackey of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. As per the usual 12-15 month recovery timeline, Kranick will miss the rest of the 2022 season and is in jeopardy of being sidelined for all the 2023 campaign.
It’s a rough turn of events for the 24-year-old, who only just made his MLB debut last season. As Mackey notes, Kranick has been battling soreness in his forearm and elbow area for much of the year, dating back to Spring Training. As a result, Kranick was limited to five innings of Major League action and 8 2/3 frames in the minors before he was placed on the Triple-A injured list last month. Unfortunately for Kranick, he won’t even bank any big league service time during his absence, as he was in the minors when he went on the IL.
Kranick is a Pennsylvania native (born in Scranton) who was selected by the Pirates in the 11th round of the 2016 draft. With a 3.50 ERA and 5.85% walk rate over 323 2/3 career innings in the minors, Kranick emerged as a rotation candidate, even if his 19.67% strikeout rate left something to be desired. Kranick started nine games for Pittsburgh last season and struggled to a 6.28 ERA over 38 2/3 innings, before tossing five scoreless innings of relief work over his two MLB appearances in 2022.