Cole Ragans to have Tommy John surgery, Kyle Cody has elbow inflammation

Texas Rangers pitcher Cole Ragans, the team’s first round pick in 2016, will undergo Tommy John surgery to repair a damaged UCL, per the beat guys on Twitter. Also per the beat guys, Kyle Cody is being shut down due to elbow inflammation, and will miss the next 4-6 weeks.

This is a bad one-two combination for the Rangers. Ragans was pulled from a game earlier this week with elbow issues, and so this isn’t a shock, but it is still disappointing to hear. Ragans had a solid season with Spokane in 2017, and profiled as a potential mid-rotation starting pitcher. Now, he will be on the shelf all of 2018, with the hope being that he will be back on the mound in May, 2019.

Cody, meanwhile, was one of the success stories from the player development system in 2017. A sixth round pick as a senior out of the University of Kentucky in 2016, Cody had a breakout year in 2017, splitting the season between low-A and high-A, and putting up a 2.64 ERA in 126 innings. We will have to wait and see what happens with Cody, but its possible he could end up going under the knife, as well.