The Arizona Diamondbacks have lost two relievers to Tommy John before the 2025 campaign has even begun.
Torey Lovullo announced on Thursday that Thyago Vieira and Josh Winder will have surgery on their pitching elbows, as reported by Mark Feinsand. Neither guy was expected to be a huge piece of their bullpen this season, but it’s still far from ideal.
Vieira has bounced around quite a bit. The righty initially made his MLB debut in 2017 with the Seattle Mariners before a stint with the Chicago White Sox. He then went to Japan and pitched there from 2020-2022 before returning to the big leagues with the Milwaukee Brewers, Baltimore Orioles, and the Diamondbacks last season.
With Arizona, he made just 11 appearances, compiling a 2.87 ERA in 15.2 innings of work. He received an invite to big league camp this spring and definitely had a chance to potentially win a spot in the bullpen, but now, the Brazil native will be on the shelf until 2026. Very unfortunate and a long road to recovery.
As for Winder, he’s thrown 110.2 innings at the MLB level with the Minnesota Twins between ’22-’24, compiling a 4.39 ERA overall. He’s struck out 85 hitters and walked 33. The right-hander was once a top prospect in the Twins system but he dealt with a plethora of different injuries that hampered his production and journey to the show.
Winder didn’t pitch much in the big leagues last year and spent most of his time in Triple-A. Instead of staying in Minny, he chose to elect free agency and the Diamondbacks offered him a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.
Thankfully, the Diamondbacks have a solid bullpen heading into this season. Regardless, it’s still brutal for both Vieira and Winder, who were hoping to make an impact for the NL West ball club. Their time will have to wait as the recovery process begins after undergoing surgery.
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