Flexen joins the long list of professional pitchers to undergo the elbow surgery.
Chris Flexen, the Mets' fourteenth-round pick in the 2012 amateur draft, underwent Tommy John surgery and had bone chips removed from his elbow, according to Toby Hyde of Mets Minor League Blog. After a very strong campaign in Kingsport last year in his age-18 season, the now-20-year-old Flexen struggled to the tune of a 4.83 ERA in 13 starts with the Single-A Savannah Sand Gants this season. Perhaps the surgery explains why he performed as poorly as he did.
Flexen didn't make the Amazin' Avenue top twenty-five before the season, but he did make the our top fifty before the 2013 season. Here's what Rob Castellano wrote about him at the time:
The Mets' 2012 14th rounder reportedly featured fifth-round talent, but slid due to second-round bonus demands. The Mets paid up, and in doing so may have quite a steal on their hands. Flexen was the second-youngest pitcher in the Appy League in 2012 and though he only turned 18 in July, the 6'3", 215-pound righty is already touching 94 mph on the gun. Despite so-so results in six starts for Kingsport, he also seemed to find his stride in August allowing just one earned over his last 11 innings pitched. An argument could easily be made for a higher ranking, but for now I'll simply flag Flexen as a definite early candidate to leap up these rankings in 2013.
Baseball America also included him in its top twenty prospects in the Appalachian League after last season.
Given a typical timetable for recovery, Flexen will obviously miss the rest of this season and could very well miss all of 2015 if the team chooses to play it safe before getting him back in game action. The good news is that he'll still be just 21 years old entering the 2016 season.