Ken Giles is having Tommy John surgery

Here’s some really unfortunate (but, ultimately, pretty unsurprising) news on the Ken Giles front.

According to Charlie Montoyo, the closer will undergo Tommy John surgery and will miss the entirety of the 2021 season.

As a guy heading into unrestricted free agency for the first time in his career, the timing simply could not be worse for Giles. If he had a big season, he obviously would have been on his way to a huge payday. Now his future in the league is completely up in the air.

I imagine that somebody will take a flyer on Giles. We’ve seen many times in the past a team sign a guy to a cheap, two-year deal as they work through Tommy John with the hope that they bounce back.

The Rays did this with Nathan Eovaldi and then managed to trade him after just 10 starts to Boston. In a somewhat similar vein, the Blue Jays signed David Phelps ahead of the 2019 season despite the fact he hadn’t pitched since 2017 due to Tommy John. After 17 appearances, the Jays dealt Phelps to the Cubs for Thomas Hatch, so that investment worked out really well.

It’ll be interesting to see if the Jays are the team to take a gamble on Giles. They’re familiar with the player and all reports indicate that he’s been a very positive presence on the team. They could sign him to a cheap, two-year deal and hope that after a lost 2021, they get themselves a good, healthy reliever on a low-cost deal for 2022.