Didi Gregorius underwent Tommy John surgery on October 17th to repair damage to his right elbow. Afterwards, Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said that the star shortstop could return to action sometime between June and August. This is great news for Yankees fans, but this estimate appears optimistic.
I went back several years to research recovery time from Tommy John surgery on a player’s throwing elbow, and the average is about 18 months, while instances of returns in under a year are very rare. Granted, most recipients of the procedure are pitchers, so the sample size for position players is small.