Twins right-hander Brock Stewart is headed for season-ending arthroscopic surgery to clean up his right shoulder, he tells Bally’s Audra Martin (X link). There’s no significant structural damage, and Stewart says he’s anticipating he’ll be ready for spring training after a projected rehab period of five to six months.
It’s a frustrating development for Stewart, who was away from major league baseball from 2020-22 due to the canceled minor league season in 2020 and a pair of elbow surgeries (Tommy John surgery and a procedure to remove a bone spur). Stewart signed a minor league deal with the Twins and not only made it back to the majors on the heels of that pair of surgeries but emerged as a lights-out option in manager Rocco Baldelli’s bullpen.
While this year’s 5.17 earned run average is an eyesore, that’s skewed entirely by his recent struggles coming back from a monthslong stint on the injured list due to pain in his balky shoulder. Stewart allowed one run with a 17-to-6 K/BB ratio in 13 1/3 innings to begin the season, hit the injured list for nearly three months, and clearly wasn’t at full strength when he returned. He was rocked for eight runs in 2 1/3 innings while working with a fastball and cutter that were both down nearly three miles per hour.
From the time Stewart’s contract was originally selected by the Twins in April 2023 to the time he first hit the injured list this past May, he was a legitimately overpowering force. An elbow issue sent him to the shelf for part of last summer, but Stewart pitched 41 innings for the Twins in that stretch and logged an incredible 0.66 ERA with a 34.8% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate. Most of the command troubles he encountered came early, too. For the better part of a year, he was a shutdown option thanks to a heater averaging nearly 98 mph and a cutter and slider that both missed bats in droves.
While the latest injury setback is surely a tough pill for Stewart to swallow, given his earlier elbow problems, this time around he’ll go under the knife knowing that he’s cemented himself in a big league team’s plans. The Twins control Stewart, 32, for another three seasons via arbitration. He’ll get a salary bump north of $1MM in his first season of arb eligibility this winter, but given the dominance he showed prior to this year’s shoulder problem and the remaining long-term control, it’ll be an easy call for the Twins to tender him a contract.