Litsch shelved for remainder of season

Just over a month ago, on April 26th I posted about my fears that Jesse Litsch's "precautionary visit" with Dr. James Andrews was way more serious than was originally reported. I had some gigantic concerns he was going to be sidelined for a long time. Turns out I was correct, unfortunately.

Litsch will miss the remainder of the 2009 season, and possibly a few months of the 2010 campaign when he goes under the knife Friday with Dr. Andrews, performing Tommy John surgery. Litsch has been on the disabled list since April 13th, and recently went back to Dr. Andrews to get a 2nd opinion on his arm. This time, however, the diagnosis is clear. He's expected to be out between 10 months to a year.

It's quite a fall for the 24 year old righty. Litsch came into the season as the 2nd most experienced member of the starting staff, expecting to be leaned on heavily with starters Dustin McGowan and Shaun Marcum nursing long term ailments of their own. With the amount of quality young arms currently on the Jays roster, and ones pushing through their way through the system, Litsch might find himself in a difficult numbers game to return as a member of the rotation once he regains his health. He might have to hope for other pitchers to fall victim to an injury like himself to make it back to Toronto.

Was he really all that great anyhow? His numbers were decent, but there's not a whole lot of upside to his game, perhaps projecting to be a 4th starter at best. His time might have passed. Remember Gustavo Chacin?