2:00pm: The Pirates announced that Jones has undergone a repair of his UCL with a projected return to full competition in 10 to 12 months.
11:00am: Infielder Enmanuel Valdez also underwent season-ending shoulder surgery this week, Tomczyk tells the Pirates beat (via the Post-Gazette’s Colin Beazley). Valdez hit the 10-day injured list due to inflammation in his left (non-throwing) shoulder on May 10. He was moved to the 60-day IL a few days later with minimal updates on his outlook. He’s now expected to be sidelined for roughly six months.
10:52am: Pirates right-hander Jared Jones will undergo season-ending surgery to address his ailing right elbow, senior director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk announced to the Pirates beat this morning (link via Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
Jones has been out all season with an elbow injury. Evaluations back in spring training did not lead to a recommendation of surgery, but Jones recently met with Dr. Keith Meister — an orthopedic surgeon who’s performed dozens of Tommy John procedures for MLB players — after his return to throwing in late April seemingly did not go well.
It’s not yet clear what type of surgery will be performed, but since Jones has been dealing with a UCL sprain, Tommy John surgery and an internal brace procedure are both presumably on the table. Jones is going under the knife today, so more information on the nature of the surgery and his timetable for a return should be available within the next few days.
Jones, 23, entered the 2024 season ranked as a consensus top-50 prospect in the sport and broke camp in the Pirates’ rotation. He wound up pitching 121 1/3 innings and more than holding his own, logging a 4.14 ERA with a 26.2% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate — both a good bit better than league-average.
Those numbers are skewed a bit by a rough finish to the season. Jones was sporting a much stronger 3.56 earned run average through 91 innings with comparable rate stats. A lat strain suffered in early July cost Jones six weeks of his rookie season. When he returned in late August, he limped to a 5.87 ERA over his final six starts.
Even with that slow finish, the stage seemed set for Jones to team with Paul Skenes and Mitch Keller to form the nucleus of an outstanding rotation for years to come. That trio, with top prospect Bubba Chandler looming in Triple-A, gives the Bucs an enviable core of high-end pitching around which to build. That’s still the case, but Jones’ inclusion in the group will be delayed into at least early 2026 and perhaps all the way into the latter stages of next season, depending on what type of surgery he ultimately requires.
Pittsburgh isn’t short on promising young arms even beyond the names listed thus far. Righties Thomas Harrington and Braxton Ashcraft are both highly regarded. Twenty-five-year-old Mike Burrows was just recalled after a strong start in Triple-A this season and will start tomorrow’s game in place of righty Carmen Mlodzinski, who’s been optioned back to the minors after a rough stretch to begin the season. Generally speaking, the Bucs are deep in young, high-upside arms but lack that same type of talent on the position-player side of things. Oneil Cruz and Joey Bart are the only above-average hitters on the Pirates’ big league roster this season, and the bulk of the bats on whom they’ve staked their hopes on throughout this rebuild have not developed as hoped.
As for Valdez, he came to the Pirates in a December swap with the Red Sox. Boston had designated him for assignment and flipped him to Pittsburgh in exchange for minor league righty Joe Vogatsky. Valdez started the season decently, hitting .227/.329/.424 (108 wRC+) in April while holding a part-time role. He spent time at first base, second base and (very briefly) in right field along the way. The 26-year-old tallied just four hits in his next 26 trips to the plate before landing on the injured list, however. His season will end with a .209/.294/.363 line (82 wRC+) in 102 plate appearances.
Both Jones and Valdez will spend the remainder of the season on the 60-day injured list, accruing major league service time and pay along the way. Both players entered the season with one-plus years of big league service and will cross the two-year threshold while rehabbing from surgeries. They’ll both be under team control for an additional four seasons, although as an offseason DFA pickup, Valdez’s standing with the team is obviously more tenuous than that of Jones — a former second-round pick and top prospect who’s viewed as a foundational piece of the team’s future.
Valdez will have a minor league option remaining beyond the current season, but it’s possible he’ll be removed from the 40-man roster at season’s end to give the Bucs some more roster flexibility heading into the winter.
