Tommy John surgeries keep piling up for White Sox as two more pitchers go under the knife

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The White Sox cannot seem to shake the Tommy John curse that's dogged them during their ongoing rebuilding process.

The list got even longer Friday, with general manager Rick Hahn announcing two more Tommy John surgeries, for pitchers Ryan Burr and Jimmy Lambert. Those two joined the likes of Zack Burdi, Michael Kopech, Dane Dunning and Carlos Rodon as pitchers who have had the procedure in recent years.

Burr was a part of the major league bullpen, with a 4.58 ERA in his 16 appearances this season. After a shaky first taste of the bigs in 2018 (eight runs allowed in 9.2 innings), Burr made the Opening Day relief corps and was relied upon often at the outset of the 2019 campaign. He struck out 20 batters in 19.2 innings of work. At just 25, he was a conceivable part of the team's bullpen of the future. But now he won't be back on a big league mound for more than a year.

Lambert, meanwhile, was a rising star in the White Sox loaded farm system, currently ranked as the No. 18 prospect in the organization. He got high praise from teammates and coaches this spring, and Friday, after announcing the surgery that will send Lambert into recovery mode for the next year-plus, Hahn said he could've reached the major leagues, potentially, this season. Lambert had a 4.55 ERA in 11 starts with Double-A Birmingham.

"You feel terrible for Jimmy Lambert, a guy who could have conceivably pushed his way here this year," Hahn said. "Dane Dunning, Rodon, obviously guys who we had pretty squarely in the '19 picture, that hurts and you feel it.

"At the same time, you try to look at overall where we're headed and how we go about getting there and realize the future still remains very bright. And that's the most important element, the big picture."

Eyes will likely gravitate to the phrases "White Sox" and "Tommy John surgery" sharing a sentence once again, sparking more queries as to why this keeps happening to South Side hurlers, a valid question.

Hahn's fielded it before and he had to answer it again Friday.

"I think it's a trend in the game, yes," he said. "I actually saw something about a week ago about another club that did a test program on like 10 of their guys to try to protect them from the likelihood of Tommy John surgery, and they wound up with six of them winding up with Tommy John surgery. I do think it's a little bit of the trend of the game.

"As I referenced before, someone told me recently that something around 33 percent of big league pitchers had Tommy John surgery already. Again, I don't have a great answer for what is the root cause of this, whether it's the added velocity or youth programs or any of the things fans have heard as possible causes of this.

"I do know on the one hand, there's a great deal of confidence in our individual Chicago White Sox training programs and methods and usage patterns, as well as our track record of performance in this area. At the same time, none of us are stubborn enough to just rest on those laurels. We're going to continue to look at ways to try to get better in those training methods to hopefully stem the tide that we've been going through here for the last few months."

The good news for the White Sox and their fans is that Tommy John is not a death sentence, nothing that is considered a career-ending injury anymore. And fans do seem to understand that, as evidenced by their excitement for the return of Kopech for the 2020 season. And so Burr and Lambert can still remain pieces of this franchise's bright future, just like Kopech and Dunning and Rodon can be.

Unfortunately, they won't be able to continue showing their stuff for another year or more.

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