“He was going to be that fifth starter,” Nationals’ manager Dave Martinez told reporters after Washington’s top pitching prospect, Cade Cavalli, suffered, “a grade three sprain of his ulnar collateral ligament which will require Tommy John surgery,” as the club announced late last week.
Cavalli, 24, and a 2020 1st Round pick by the Nats, acknowledged his obvious and understandable disappointment with the injury, which will cost him all of his 2023 season, but he said he quickly moved on to accepting reality.
“I gave myself a little bit of time to cry and to hurt,” Cavalli said, as quoted by MLB.