Major League Baseball officially kicks off its 2024 year on Thursday, and the listing of outstanding pitchers who are injured reserve resembles a vote from a potential Hall of Fame vote.
The New York Yankees ‘ Gerrit Cole, Los Angeles Dodgers ‘ Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw, Houston Astros ‘ Justin Verlander, Texas Rangers ‘ Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom, and Diamondbacks ‘ Eduardo Rodriguez are among the starting pitchers who are expected to be out for weeks to months with various arm and back injuries.
The D-backs this week signed left-hander Jordan Montgomery to a one-year contract worthwhile$ 25 million with a compensation solution for 2025 to change Rodriguez. But given that he has n’t thrown a live pitch all spring, he likely wo n’t be ready for a while.

Most of these cups are prize winners. Verlander is the active head with 257 job wins, and Scherzer leads with 3, 367 strikes. Kershaw is only 56 Kb away from 3, 000. Cole is the current recipient of the American League Cy Young Award. Verlander, Scherzer and Kershaw have combined for nine Cy Youngs—three each.
Texas director Bruce Bochy, who’s trying to repeat as World Series grand, said he’s really as mystified about the development of pitching wounds as anyone.
” Some points are just so difficult to explain”, Bochy said. ” It’s been quite the work of accidents. Our guys are coming off clinics. As far as all those other guys, I ca n’t explain that”.
When Scherzer’s again got tight, he was forced to leave Game 3 of the World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Finally, he opted for offseason up surgery. Bochy said he’s throwing but wo n’t return until May.
DeGrom had his minute Tommy John muscle replacement operation on June 18; it was his sixth start following his$ 85 million free agent deal extension. Since the recovery period from the muscle replacement surgery is 12 to 18 weeks, deGrom may not be up until the 2025 period.
Therefore, the Rangers are opening the year against the Chicago Cubs at Globe Life Field with a wooden movement of Nathan Eovaldi, Andrew Heaney, Jon Gray, Dave Dunning and Cody Bradford, Bochy said.
Montgomery, who finished the year as one of Texas ‘ best example, was also not are- signed.
Bochy said,” It’s lucky we are pretty deep,” but it’s worth noting that Eovaldi, who frequently injured himself, missed about two weeks of this past year with a right elbow stress.
Therefore, who knows what the urgent future will bring?
The Yankees face the Astros in Minute Maid Park, where Verlander vs. Cole would have been the starting lineup. Otherwise, it’s Framber Valdez against Nestor Cortes.
Verlander, who has struggled on and off for two times with a d wound below his right shoulder, may be the Astros ‘ least concern because the group is starting the year with four example up. The 41-year-old recently threw to dwell outfielders for the first time last year. New director Joe Espada reported to local journalists that he tossed 20 pitches and “walked off the mountain feeling really good about his outing.” Verlander wo n’t pitch in the Majors until May at the earliest.

Cole came up with a sore right elbow midway through spring training, and while it was determined he did n’t need surgery, he’s not expected to be ready until June—a big hit for an already shaky New York rotation. It’s the first day Cole has ever been injured.
” It’s not a common experience for me. I have n’t dealt with anything like this before”, Cole told writers recently. ” Anyplace you’re going through something for the first time there’s a little bit of confusion, but I had a lot of faith”.
Even with the season expansions of Tyler Glasnow, Yoshino Yamamoto, and James Paxton, the Dodgers ‘ movement is thin over in Los Angeles. Buehler, coming off his minute Tommy John surgery, is targeted for a May profit more than 19 months after the Aug. 24, 2022, technique that also repaired the abductor muscle in his right neck. Kershaw had shoulder surgery off-season, and he wo n’t be expected to return until August, if that’s the case.
Kershaw once said,” Summers is about as good as I may do,” earlier in the spring. I detest using a calendar because it is bad if I go below or beyond it. But I do suggest July- ish, August- ish. Somewhere in there. I do n’t know”.
The defending National League champion D-backs thought they had gotten past the injured cups, but Rodriguez, who was just signed, had a similar leg wound below Verlander’s kept back next year. He was shut down after a few days of tests and evaluations.
Rodriguez, even typically injured during his profession, was one of Arizona’s great off- season complimentary- agent purchases with a four- year,$ 80 million contract. In the next movement, behind Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, he was supposed to make a hole. Despite recently signing Montgomery, who has a contract for 2025 with a vesting option that could pay him up to$ 25 million, based on how many starts he makes in 2024, that gap persists.
This spring, the D-backs slow-walked their instance, making them occasionally throw on the backfields rather than in Cactus League games. In an interview last month, D-backs supervisor Torey Lovullo stated that the importance of keeping the pitchers good “was a major focus from the year ended last year.”
The medical staff stepped in and conducted extensive research, he continued, adding that we started talking about it as a team.
Rodriguez, 30, has had wounds to his neck, back, knee, hip and then back. He’s undergone left hip surgery, and a heart problem kept him from playing at all during the 2020 epidemic simplified 60- sport season.
Along with some of MLB’s best and brightest starting pitchers, he’s now again on the injured listing.