The Tigers provided updates on several injured minor leaguers on Friday, including the news that Angel De Jesus recently underwent Tommy John surgery. (Hat tip to MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery.) The timing of the procedure will almost surely keep De Jesus out of action for all of the 2024 season, as Spring Training 2025 seems to be the likelier return date for the right-hander.
It’s a brutal setback for the 26-year-old De Jesus, who made his Major League debut in 2022. Detroit called De Jesus up and down from Triple-A on a few occasions last season, with the righty totaling 12 2/3 innings over eight appearances. He had only a 13% strikeout rate in that small sample size of work, but De Jesus got a lot of help from BABIP (.179) and an absurd 98.4% strand rate to deliver a 2.13 ERA over what remains his only taste of MLB action.
Detroit designated De Jesus for assignment during the offseason, then outrighted him off the 40-man roster after clearing waivers. In a step backwards, De Jesus has spent the entire 2023 season at Double-A Erie, delivering a lot of strikeouts but also a 12.5% walk rate over his 36 1/3 innings at the lower affiliate. It’s possible he might have gotten a Triple-A callup at some point this year had injury not intervened, as De Jesus’ outing on July 29 will now be his last on-field performance for quite some time.