Nationals right-hander Josiah Gray to have season-ending elbow surgery

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nationals right-hander Josiah Gray will have season-ending surgery for a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow, the team announced Friday.

It won’t be clear until Dr. Keith Meister operates on the elbow on Wednesday in Texas whether Gray’s injury will require an internal brace or Tommy John ligament-replacement surgery. The latter procedure could sideline him well into next season.

“He was emotional. I got emotional,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said of his conversation with Gray about the injury. “He’s special because he cares a lot about this organization.”

An All-Star last season, the 26-year-old Gray was Washington’s opening day starter in March but made only two starts this year before being shut down with a sore elbow and forearm. He tried to rehabilitate the injury but felt fatigued during his last minor league rehab start on June 30.

Martinez said Gray had been progressing without pain and only felt a “dead arm” after the rehab start. Gray had an MRI over the All-Star break that revealed the season-ending tear.

“It’s a setback. We can all admit that,” Gray said. “But it is something, you know, you can grow from, you can learn from, and come back better. And in talking with all my friends around baseball, I’ve been able to just understand that it is, you know, just a blip on the radar.

“It’s not going to be the end of my story.”

Gray was a prized acquisition for the Nationals in the July 2021 trade that sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Los Angeles Dodgers as Washington began rebuilding less than two years after its World Series title.

He is 17-27 with a 4.80 ERA in 72 starts for Washington, going 8-13 with a career-best 3.81 ERA and pitching a career-best 159 innings last year.

Gray plans to remain with the team during the early stages of his rehab.

“Obviously I can’t go out there and suit up and get strikeouts, but I will hopefully be an encourager as much as possible,” he said. “I’m just grateful for that and grateful to be here.”

The Nationals (44-53) entered Friday’s game against Cincinnati six games out of the third and final NL wild card spot, but with six teams ahead of them. There are indications Washington is already looking ahead to next year. Right-handed reliever Hunter Harvey was traded to Kansas City last week for third base prospect Cayden Wallace and the No. 39 overall pick in the amateur draft, which the Nationals used to select catcher Caleb Lomavita.

Martinez said he expected the team to be in a better position when Gray returns.

“He’ll be back in a great time where we feel like we’re going to be vying for another playoff spot, and it’ll be fun for him,” Martinez said.