FSU’s ace pitcher out for season with torn UCL

UPDATE — February 21, 2017

FSU fans’ worst fears have come true...

Florida State announced earlier today that the preseason All-American, and Golden Spikes Award nominee will undergo surgery on Thursday morning to repair a torn UCL. Recovery timelines for Tommy John surgery vary, however, in a best-case scenario Holton will resume throwing activities in 6-7 months before possibly returning to action after 9-10 months of rehab.

Head coach Mike Martin spoke about the news on Wednesday. “Tyler is a fine young man and we’re all disappointed at this setback in his career,” Martin said. “He’s doing the best thing right now. We’ll be there for him and help guide him through the rehab process, but as a team, we have to keep moving forward on our goals for this season.”

FSU will throw Cole Sands, Drew Parrish and freshmen Austin Pollock this weekend against Troy.

UPDATE — February 20, 2017

The results of Tyler Holton’s MRI are still being evaluated. Speaking with the team before Tuesday’s game, FSU is “hoping to have more info tomorrow or Thursday.”

We will update further as soon as we know more.

Everything appeared to be going well for the Seminoles on Friday afternoon — until it wasn’t. Florida State got the win, but it may have come at a price.

Preseason All-American pitcher, and Golden Spikes Award nominee, Tyler Holton exited Friday’s Opening Day contest after just 4.2 innings. He didn’t show any signs of trouble until the fifth inning. After allowing a lead-off double, the only hit he allowed, head coach Mike Martin and the training staff went to visit Holton on the mound.

His day was done.

After exiting the game, the junior left-hander was seen grabbing his arm as he headed directly into the clubhouse. Certainly this will continue to be a developing story, however, the good news is that he later returned to the dugout and performed arm exercises without impairment. He did not have the arm wrapped or tapped so perhaps this is just a precautionary measure and not something that will cause Holton to miss time. Andrew Karp came in to finish the fifth inning.

After the game, Holton mentioned that the “tightness” in his arm has occurred before while in high school. Head Coach Mike Martin told us that the staff ace will undergo an MRI for further evaluation.

Holton was excited when the team announced their intention to give him at-bats at first base this year. The MRI is most likely precautionary as this sort of thing is common early in the year. While possible, do not expect Holton to play first or DH this week. There’s no word on if that approach will be altered long-term — that will likely depend on the MRI results.

You can follow along with the action on our game thread.