San Diego Padres southpaw Cory Luebke will officially undergo Tommy John surgery on Wednesday to repair his ‘significantly torn’ ulnar collateral ligament.
For some reason, Luebke was considering rehabbing the injury and pitching later this season, and still needing surgery down the line to go along with likely poorer results until then. Luebke’s decision to have the surgery is probably for the best, for him and the Padres, who extended Luebke at the end of spring training.
Luebke isn’t sure when the injury happened, but he believes it was at some point between his fourth and fifth start. After his fifth start (6 IP, 2 ER, 3 K), Luebke felt something was “a little off”, but didn’t think the prognosis would be as bad as it ultimately was.
Luebke had won three straight starts before moving to the disabled list and the Padres moved him to the 60-day DL on Sunday. He was 3-1 with a 2.61 ERA and 1.16 WHIP this season. Despite the better ERA and WHIP this year, Luebke’s strikeout rate per nine innings was down to 6.7 from his breakout season last year as a 26-year-old (9.9).
