The prospect of the bear Brandon BirdsellAssistant General Manager Jared Banner announced yesterday that one of the largest young weapons in the system will undergo surgery on the right elbow this week (linked via the Associated Press’s Janie McCauley). Banner provides no specific details about the injury, only noting that the procedure will be performed by Dr. Keith Meister, one of the industry’s most prominent orthopedic doctors, and more will be known after the procedure.
Banner did not mention Birdsell’s Ulnar collateral ligament, although this was obviously a fear in this case. For medical professionals, ligaments need repair, but a call is made between the internal stent and a full replacement (i.e. Tommy John’s surgery) until the surgery begins and the surgeon can first-hand observe the extent of the damage. Of course, the obvious hope is that Birdsell is dealing with serious injuries, but the team won’t leak that information after the surgery.
Regardless of the nature of the surgery, it was a setback in Birdsell’s development, a former Texas Tech standout who the Cubs chose him as a fifth-round pick in the 2022 draft. 6’2″, the 240-pound right-click hit the prospect map in 2023 with 107 1/3 innings in his first professional season, and he made 135 2/3 frames between Double-A and Triple-A last year. In the process, he made a significant improvement in strikeout and walking rates, completing 24 campaigns at 23.5% and 5.4%, respectively. That 2024 season drove the organization’s prospect rankings, ranking eighth in Fangraphs, ninth on MLB.com and 12th in the U.S. baseball game.
Birdsell opened the 2025 season on the injury roster and returned to the mound in mid-June, looking to work for much of the summer. The Cubs put him back in two and four innings, starting with a low-level minor and then reaching him into Triple-A. Birdsell posted a 2.48 ERA in his first seven games, with a strikeout rate of 23.3% and a 9.2% walk rate before being shocked by six innings (3 gains) in 4 2/3 innings on August 7, the final start of his 2025 season.
Among minors, Birdell has little to prove. He entered the year, widely regarded as a close-a-MLB defender unit and is known for filling the reputation of the strike zone. He will be in the offseason to be Rule 5 eligible and make an interesting decision for the Cubs if his surgery will eliminate his surgery in most or all of the 2026 campaign.
