A day after announcing that rookie right-hander River Ryan will miss the rest of the season with an elbow injury, the Los Angeles Dodgers said Tuesday that he will require Tommy John surgery.
The injury occurred during Rivers’ fourth career major league start Saturday against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 25-year-old underwent an MRI on Sunday morning.
The former two-way player was acquired in a trade from the San Diego Padres in March 2022.
Ryan was 1-0 for Los Angeles this season with a 1.33 ERA and went 4⅔ scoreless innings before departing Saturday’s game. He had a 2.22 ERA in eight minor league starts over three levels in 2024, while the Dodgers limited his usage in the minors to 49 appearances (45 starts) over three seasons.
Ryan said he started to feel tightness in his forearm in the third inning Saturday and continued to pitch until he was removed in the fifth after showing discomfort following a pitch to the Pirates’ Michael A. Taylor.
“It’s part of the game, man,” Ryan said after Saturday’s game. “The pitch clock definitely makes you speed up a lot. Back in the day, you didn’t have to speed up as much when you threw. So throwing back-to-back pitches in 15 seconds, it starts to take a toll.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
The Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball have suspended outfielder Jarren Duran for two games after he uttered an anti-gay slur at a fan during the team’s loss Sunday to the Houston Astros.
Duran’s suspension began with Monday’s game against the Texas Rangers. The Red Sox also announced that Duran’s salary from the suspension will be donated to PFLAG (formerly called Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). Duran earns $760,000 and will lose $8,172.
In the sixth inning of Boston’s game Sunday at Fenway Park, Duran turned around in the middle of an at-bat and said to a heckler: “Shut up, you f—ing f—-t.”
Duran, 27, apologized in a statement Sunday night for using “a truly horrific word when responding to a fan.”
Before answering reporters’ questions in the middle of the clubhouse Monday, Duran started by further apologizing to fans whom he said reached out to him and said “they were disappointed in me.”
“I’m sorry for my actions and I’m going to work on being better,” the 27-year-old outfielder said, as quoted by The Associated Press.
“We all love Jarren,” teammate Rob Refsnyder said after hitting a walk-off single in Boston’s 5-4, 10-inning win over Texas on Monday night. “He’ll learn from this. We’re all human. We all make mistakes, but he’ll learn from this.”
President and Chief Executive Officer Sam Kennedy said the club was in touch with Major League Baseball after the game.
“It’s a really difficult day, disappointing,” Kennedy said, speaking to the media directly outside the clubhouse. “I’m proud of the way the organization addressed the situation and I’m proud of Jarren for acknowledging his horrific mistake.”
Standing next to Kennedy, Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow said the team still had work to do.
“I think it is striking evidence that while we have made strides and done great work, we haven’t done nearly enough,” he said. “I think that an incident like this is an important reminder that there’s ton of progress that still needs to be made.”
Duran told reporters that the fan had been “heckling me the entire game and I said something I shouldn’t have said.”
Duran said he immediately turned and apologized to plate umpire Jordan Baker and Houston catcher Yainer Diaz “for my actions. They were right there, they heard me say it. I’m assuming they cut the mic because of my inappropriate word.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said: “There’s a lot of work to be done and I’m here to help him out.”
