The 2022 group that included Max Fried, Kyle Wright, Ian Anderson, and Huascar Ynoa saw their 453.2 innings reduced to just 108.2, with Fried being mostly responsible for that decrease. Their rotation took an especially serious hit from this.
But in 2024, as Atlanta prepares to welcome back Ian Anderson and Huascar Ynoa after Tommy John surgery, things should be getting better.
Ynoa is the first pitcher slated to resume play after surgery in September 2022. He is doing well now that he is in camp. It usually takes a pitcher 12 to 18 months to get back into the game.
while it comes to starting pitching, he appears to be the underdog because Hurston Waldrep, AJ Smith-Shawver, and free agent addition Reynaldo López are the only players brought up while talking about the #5 spot in the rotation.
Ynoa is eager to become a better player and person than when Atlanta fans last saw him, despite being in good health.
Probably something Ynoa would prefer to forget, the last memory most fans have of him is on a May Sunday in Milwaukee, when, after a poor outing in which he gave up five runs on nine hits in just 4.1 innings, he smashed a bullpen bench out of rage.
Ynoa, who was soaring with a 4-1 record and 2.23 ERA at the time, lost three whole months to the injury and didn’t look quite the same near the end of the 2021 season. He pitched to an ERA above five and went 0-4 in ten starts. Ynoa was left off the playoff roster as Atlanta went on to win the World Series.
Ynoa was optioned to AAA Gwinnett in 2022 after making just two starts. There, he struggled the entire season (5.68 ERA) and eventually had Tommy John surgery at the end of the season.
After that, he spent time getting better physically and mentally, he told Justin Toscano of the AJC. “I think there’s some things, even off the pitch, that I was taking too personally,” he said.