DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Just as Ricky Tiedemann was building some momentum again in Spring Training, he has been shut down for the next week with left elbow soreness.
The good news is that an initial MRI showed “nothing structural” in Tiedemann’s elbow, but the bad news is that we’re talking about his elbow at all.
Tiedemann, the No. 4 prospect in the Blue Jays’ system, missed much of 2024 and all of the ‘25 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. He’d completed nearly his full rehab by the end of last season, so there has been plenty of optimism surrounding the 23-year-old coming into camp. But now we’ll need to pause and wait on Tiedemann’s progress in the coming weeks.
Since camp opened, Tiedemann has faced hitters in live batting practice twice, the second time looking noticeably better than the first. This issue came up following a recent side session, but just a week prior, Tiedemann was in an excellent spot.
“I feel amazing. Everything feels great,” Tiedemann said early last week. “It’s just about seeing live batters and getting that feel back, but health-wise? Everything’s been money.”
Details of Tiedemann’s rehab
No two surgeries or rehabs are the same, so the details matter here.
During Tiedemann’s Tommy John surgery, doctors also removed some bone chips from his left elbow, which had been preventing him from fully extending his elbow 100%. By the time Tiedemann was ramped up to throwing more than a year later, that caused some issues with a brief “obstacle” in late 2025.
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“When I started throwing again, after removing the bone chips, I could get full extension on my elbow,” Tiedemann said. “I was throwing the slider the same, but that’s what caused my joining reaction, which caused the setback.”
That was the last hiccup on this journey for Tiedemann, so he and the Blue Jays adjusted his slider grip to put less strain on the elbow. Tiedemann describes this as “throwing it a bit more like a fastball, so I’m not ripping and getting around it or doing too much with my elbow,” and he has felt that will be more efficient long-term.
No rehab is linear, either. Take Shane Bieber, who is close to two years removed from his Tommy John surgery but is ramping up a bit slower in Jays camp to account for the stress of a deep playoff run and the resulting forearm fatigue. Frankly, some bumps in the road are all part of this process, and that’s fine as long as they’re just bumps, not potholes.
In a perfect world
Baseball rarely allows for perfect worlds, especially when we’re talking about elbows and shoulders. But it’s very encouraging that nothing structural was found in the initial MRI, and we should know much more about Tiedemann’s elbow in the next week or two.
The long-term context here is that Tiedemann was never going to throw 150 innings this season. He was likely never going to throw even 100 innings. If this is just a delay and nothing more serious, there’s still plenty of room for a healthy Tiedemann to peak at the right time, which is the heart of the season and the stretch run.
If Tiedemann were healthy, it feels likeliest that he would stay on a very regular schedule, much like a starter, but pitch in shorter bursts. If he’s healthy and performing anywhere close to what his talent can be, Tiedemann would quickly force his way into one of the 13 best pitchers in this organization and a bullpen role later in the season.
Health comes first, though, which Tiedemann knows too well. And the Blue Jays will need to wait for another “all clear” before one of their most gifted pitchers cranks it up again.