LOS ANGELES (AP) — Joe Musgrove needs Tommy John surgery and won’t pitch for the San Diego Padres in the NL Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The right-hander has an ulnar collateral ligament injury, A.J. Preller, the Padres president of baseball operations, said Friday. Recovery typically takes 12 to 18 months, meaning Musgrove could miss the entire 2025 season.
“I'm devastated about not being able to finish what we started,” an emotional Musgrove said in the Padres dugout. “It's just a matter of coming to grips with that this is it for me.”
Musgrove is just the latest in a series of MLB pitchers who've sustained UCL injuries this season, including Atlanta's Spencer Strider, Cleveland's Shane Bieber, Toronto's Alek Manoah and Miami's Eury Pérez.
“It's rampant in our game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Musgrove left Game 2 of the NL Wild Card Series with elbow tightness. He threw two slow curveballs to fall behind 2-1 on Atlanta's Matt Olson with two outs in the fourth and was visited by pitching coach Ruben Niebla. Padres manager Mike Shildt and an athletic trainer joined them, and Musgrove came out.
“If you’re not a pitcher, it’s very difficult to explain. I just had a hard time getting to full extension and letting pitches go,” Musgrove said Wednesday. “There wasn’t a whole lot of confidence behind it. I had two outs in the inning. I was hoping to be able to get through the inning and then address it in between, but I didn’t make it to that point.”
Musgrove had been pitching through discomfort for a couple of weeks. The 31-year-old right-hander had two stints on the injured list with right elbow inflammation this season, costing him a total of 63 games. His second stint sidelined him for 2 1/2 months. He had a 2.17 ERA over 54 innings since Aug. 12.
“I was told back in the middle months of the summer that it was some damage there and that it was kind of a matter of time,” he said. “This seemed like something that I could manage. Physically, I felt like I was capable of throwing still. It didn't feel like anything as extreme as a UCL injury, but over the last few weeks it was getting a little more intense.”
Musgrove said he would reach out to players who've had Tommy John surgery to learn more. The procedure involves reattaching a tendon from another part of the body to the elbow.
“I don't know when the surgery will be. I'd like to get it sooner rather than later,” he said. “I'm going to be supporting the hell out of these guys.”
Musgrove was in the second year of a $100 million, five-year extension that he signed in August 2022. He gets $20 million annually from 2023-27.
Losing Musgrove is a blow. The native of El Cajon is revered by Padres fans for throwing the first no-hitter in franchise history in 2021, when he was acquired that January in a three-team trade.
Preller said, “We're definitely not here if it's not for Joe Musgrove.”
“He’s a special individual, but I can tell you we’ll be just fine and compete,” Shildt said. “He’ll be in our hearts but won’t be with us on the mound.”
Musgrove is well-liked around the majors as well, and Roberts called his absence “a bummer.”
“Joe is not only a good pitcher, he’s a great guy,” Roberts said. “So to be at the 1-yard line as far as in this series and for him to not be a part of it, it sucks.”
The Padres will start right-hander Dylan Cease in Game 1, followed by righty Yu Darvish in Game 2.
“He’s a great leader, great teammate,” Cease said of Musgrove. “He’ll be with us in other ways.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Joe Musgrove exits the game during the fourth inning in Game 2 of an NL Wild Card Series baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Joe Musgrove exits the game during the fourth inning in Game 2 of an NL Wild Card Series baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Joe Musgrove throws to an Atlanta Braves batter during the first inning in Game 2 of an NL Wild Card Series baseball game Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Relentless Israeli airstrikes pounded Beirut's southern suburbs overnight and closed off the main highway linking Lebanon with Syria, forcing fleeing civilians to cross the border by foot.
The airstrikes came as the supreme leader of Iran, which backs the anti-Israel militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, praised the country’s recent missile strike on Israel and said Friday it was ready to do it again if necessary.
Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel almost exactly a year ago, killing 1,200 Israelis, taking 250 people hostage, and setting off a war with Israel that has shattered much of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed since then in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between fighters and civilians. It says more than half were women and children.
In late September, Israel shifted some of its focus to Hezbollah, which holds much of the power in parts of southern Lebanon and some other areas of the country, attacking the militants with exploding pagers, airstrikes and, eventually, incursions into Lebanon.
Here’s what to know:
Israel said it targeted the crossing with Syria because Hezbollah militants were using it to bring in weapons, and that its jets had also struck a smuggling tunnel. Much of Hezbollah's weaponry is believed to come from Iran through Syria.
Tens of thousands of people fleeing war in Lebanon have crossed into Syria over the past two weeks.
Israeli officials said they were targeting Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in the Beirut suburb airstrikes. It did not say if any militants were killed, but it says it has killed 100 Hezbollah fighters in the last 24 hours.
Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon. Two Israeli soldiers were also killed in a Thursday drone attack in northern Israel, military officials said. An umbrella group of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq said it carried out three drone strikes Friday in northern Israel.
The Israeli military launched a ground incursion into Lebanon earlier this week and has been fighting Hezbollah militants in a narrow strip of land along the border. A series of attacks before the incursion killed some of the group’s key members, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Hezbollah, in a display of solidarity, began launching rockets into northern Israel just after Hamas' Oct. 7 cross-border attack.
On Thursday, Israel extended its evacuation warnings to communities in southern Lebanon, including and beyond an area that the United Nations had declared a buffer zone after Israel and Hezbollah fought a brief 2006 war.
Lebanese officials say nearly 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes because of the fighting.
A Thursday airstrike on a West bank cafe, which Israeli officials said had targeted Palestinian militants, also killed a family of four, including two young children, relatives said.
Lebanon's health ministry said at least 18 Palestinians had been killed.
The Israeli military said the airstrike in the Tulkarem refugee camp killed several militants, including Hamas’ leader in the camp, whom it accused of involvement in in multiple attacks on Israeli civilians, and of planning an attack on Israel on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 assault.
Tulkarem, a hotbed of Palestinian militancy, is frequently targeted by the Israeli military.
Airstrikes used to be rare in the Palestinian territory, but they have grown more common as Israeli forces clamp down, saying they want to prevent attacks on their citizens.
Israeli fire has killed at least 722 Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct. 7, Palestinian health officials say. In that time, Palestinian militants have launched a number of attacks on soldiers at checkpoints and within Israel.
A top Iranian official warned Friday that it would harshly retaliate if Israel attacks Iran.
“If the Israeli entity takes any step or measure against us, our retaliation will be stronger than the previous one,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in Beirut after meeting Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
Araghchi's visit came three days after Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel, the latest in a series of rapidly escalating attacks that threaten to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.
President Joe Biden said he couldn't say if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding up a Mideast peace deal to influence the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
“No administration has helped Israel more than I have. None. None. None. And I think Bibi should remember that,” Biden told reporters Friday, using the Israeli leader's nickname. “And whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know, but I’m not counting on that.”
Biden, who has long pushed for a diplomatic agreement, and whose relationship with Netanyahu has grown increasingly complicated, was responding to comments made by one of his allies, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut.
“I don’t think you have to be a hopeless cynic to read some of Israel’s actions, some of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s actions, as connected to the American election,” Murphy said on CNN.
A peace deal would help smooth divisions in the Democratic Party and could increase electoral support for Vice President Kamala Harris. Netanyahu, though, worries his far-right coalition would stop supporting him if he signed an agreement, leaving him out of power and facing his own legal problems.
Netanyahu has a markedly closer relationship with former President Donald Trump than he does with Biden.
Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile towards southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Syrians carry their luggage as they cross on foot into Syria through a crater caused by an Israeli airstrike to cut the road between the Lebanese and the Syrian checkpoints, at the Masnaa crossing, in the eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Samer Husseini)
Draped in the Palestinian, Hamas and Islamic Jihad flags, mourners pray by the bodies of 18 Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli airstrike during their funeral in Tulkarem, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gestures as he delivers his sermon during Friday prayers at Imam Khomeini grand mosque, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Smoke rises following an Israeli shelling in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Draped in the Palestinian, Hamas and Islamic Jihad flags, mourners carry the bodies of 18 Palestinians who were killed in an Israeli airstrike during their funeral in Tulkarem, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Hezbollah paramedics walk between debris after an airstrike hit an apartment in a multistory building, in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Smoke rises following an Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
A woman reacts in front an apartment in a multistory building hit by Israeli airstrike, in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Israelis wait to re-board their bus after projectiles were launched from Iran are being intercepted in the skies over in Rosh HaAyin, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Israelis take cover as projectiles launched from Iran are being intercepted in the skies over in Rosh HaAyin, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from northern Israel towards Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
A woman holds her cat in front of a destroyed building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Smoke envelops the area near destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires a shell from northern Israel towards Lebanon, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
An Israeli soldier covered in a prayer shawl prays at a mobile artillery position in northern Israel, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Projectiles fly through the sky in central Israel as a siren sounds a warning of incoming missiles fired from Iran towards Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A cleric clenches his fist as he celebrates Iran's missile strike against Israel in an anti-Israeli gathering at Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People take cover on the side of a road as a siren sounds a warning of incoming missiles fired from Iran on a freeway in Shoresh, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in Israel Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
People take cover on the side of the road as a siren sounds a warning of incoming missiles fired from Iran on a freeway in Shoresh, between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in Israel Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli army tanks manoeuvre in a staging area in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A damaged building is seen at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Israeli army tanks manoeuvre in a staging area in northern Israel near the Israel-Lebanon border, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
