With much of the news surrounding the Phillies this week being about their workouts and games being postponed due to the outbreak of Covid-19 within the Marlins locker room, news outside of that has been kind of scarce. However, we did get a piece of injury news today on one of the Phillies most notable young pieces, Seranthony Dominguez.
After first tearing his UCL in June of 2019, Dominguez is finally going to have Tommy John surgery to fix the ligament in his right elbow. Initially, Dominguez was hoping that an offseason of rehabilitation would allow for natural healing of the ligament. Dominguez was injured again in March and decided to have the surgery, though the timing of it was TBD with the pandemic causing a stop to non-emergency medical procedures.
Dr. James Andrews, the wizard of Tommy John surgery, is performing the surgery.
While I can appreciate the wait and see approach to the injury, the three seasons that will be affected by this surgery is hard to swallow, especially when it is a young player in a position of need. Having the surgery right when it happened, as Dominguez’s first opinion said, would have not only cut a full year off the recovery time, but it also would have allowed him to be a part of what looks to be one of the worst bullpens in the league this year.
In other injury news, Mickey Moniak is recovering in Clearwater from a unspecified knee injury he sustained earlier this year. Many people were wondering why he wasn’t working out in the satellite camp, and now we know why. Moniak, who many people already consider a bust after being the No. 1 pick back in 2016, played last season at Double-A, slashing an uninspiring .252/.303/.439 in what is considered a hitter’s friendly park.