Atlanta Braves Kolby Allard: Back Surgery
Nov 7, 2015; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Detailed view of an official baseball during the Arizona Fall League Fall Stars game at Salt River Fields. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
This is not something you normally hear about for any athlete, but especially not an 18-year-old:
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Full credit to Martin Gandy for getting this information out: this has been hidden from view since August, when the GCL short season finished up. In fact, Kolby Allard only pitched 3 times for a total of 6 innings, the last time being August 21st.
Allard, the #1 pick for the Braves in the 2015 draft (14th overall) turned 18 on August 13th. He fell lower in the draft due to a March “stress reaction” in his back – an issue that was said to be completely healed by draft day.
Braves fans may recall that Tim Hudson had a lumbar spine fusion procedure performance at the end of November of 2011. In this Sporting News quote from the following March 12th, Hudson reported that he hoped to be cleared to throw off a mound within that next week, with a goal of rejoining the rotation by May 1st. He actually beat that estimate, throwing 5 innings on April 29th… and getting the win while allowing just 2 earned runs while striking out 6.
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So on the fully optimistic bent while knowing zero on details about the complexity of the operation or anything else about Allard’s condition, an operation occurring at perhaps the end of August would – in theory – put Allard in line to begin a normal Spring schedule on time… and it seems Mark Bowman was asking the same question:
Hopefully for his sake – and in this case I mean his personal life, not even his baseball career – that’s the extent of the issue. But he’s still awfully young to be having major back issues like this.