{"id":832440,"date":"2026-07-30T01:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T01:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/832440\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T01:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T01:36:11","slug":"brad-keller-undergoes-ucl-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/832440\/","title":{"rendered":"Brad Keller Undergoes UCL Surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phillies announced that reliever\u00a0Brad Keller<\/a> underwent a UCL reconstruction (Tommy John surgery) with an internal brace and flexor repair on Wednesday. The recovery is 13-16 months, so there\u2019s a decent chance he\u2019ll miss the entire 2027 season.<\/p>\n

Keller was already known to be out for this season after being diagnosed with a UCL tear around the All-Star Break. That makes today\u2019s development, while unfortunate, not unexpected. It\u2019s a tough setback for a pitcher who had already needed to carve out a second act after undergoing surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome in 2023. He reinvented himself as a high-leverage reliever with the Cubs a season ago, working to a 2.07 ERA across 69 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

That earned the righty a two-year, $22MM free agent deal from Philadelphia over the winter. That\u2019ll go down as a near-complete loss for the team if Keller does miss all of next season. He pitched 31 1\/3 frames this year, allowing a 4.02 ERA while collecting 13 holds and three saves. He missed the second half of June with forearm tendinitis before this much more significant elbow injury.<\/p>\n

Keller\u2019s injury has already led the Phils to search for a reliever on the trade front. Jonathan Bowlan<\/a> has moved up the leverage hierarchy but left them more exposed in the middle innings. Today\u2019s loss to finish a sweep at the hands of the Marlins was a good example. Interim skipper Don Mattingly called upon Seth Johnson<\/a> in the seventh inning to try to protect a 6-4 lead behind Jes\u00fas Luzardo<\/a>. Johnson served up a game-tying, two-run single to\u00a0Xavier Edwards<\/a>. Bowlan, then called upon for a tied game in the eighth, surrendered what proved to be the game-winning home run to\u00a0Griffin Conine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That dropped Philly into a tie with the Diamondbacks for the NL\u2019s last Wild Card spot. They\u2019re clear deadline buyers but weighing the bullpen against the need for at least a fifth starter (arguably a mid-rotation arm to push Aaron Nola<\/a> into the #5 role) and a right fielder.<\/p>\n

Keller will spend the remainder of the season on the 60-day injured list. He\u2019ll need to be reinstated onto the 40-man roster over the winter. If the Phillies expect him to miss the entire season, they could release him to open the roster spot (as the Mets did with\u00a0Frankie Montas<\/a> last offseason). It\u2019s unlikely they\u2019d do that as long as there\u2019s hope he can return for a \u201927 playoff push.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phillies announced that reliever\u00a0Brad Keller underwent a UCL reconstruction (Tommy John surgery) with an internal brace and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,116271,591,85],"class_list":["post-832440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brad-keller","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}