Padres righty Michel Baez to undergo Tommy John surgery

Padres right-hander Michel Báez is slated to undergo Tommy John surgery, Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune was among those to relay. The 25-year-old will miss the entire 2021 season and quite likely a significant portion of 2022.

Báez is a former top prospect, but he has yet to carve out a consistent MLB role. Working almost exclusively out of the bullpen, the hard-throwing righty has picked up 34.1 innings at the major league level over the past two seasons. He has a 3.67 ERA/4.53 SIERA with slightly worse than average strikeout and walk rates (22.7% and 10.4%, respectively) over that time.

The loss of Báez deals a bit of a blow to San Diego’s bullpen depth this season. The Padres’ relief corps has a good amount of talent but also has a significant number of hurlers who are out of minor league option years. That could lead to a bit of a roster crunch as the season progresses.