The Mets announced Saturday that pitching prospect Matt Allan underwent UCL revision surgery in January. Dr. Keith Meister performed the procedure in Arlington, Texas.
Allan, who was selected in the third-round of the 2019 MLB Draft, underwent Tommy John surgery in May 2021 and then had nerve transposition surgery in January 2022. The 21-year-old has not pitched in a game since 2019.
He was expected to begin the year in Low-A St. Lucie before potentially moving up to High-A Brooklyn, but it appears to be unlikely that he'll be able to pitch at all this season.
Allan was considered one of the best high school pitchers in the 2019 draft and agreed to a $2.5 million signing bonus with the Mets instead of attending the University of Florida.
He spoke to reporters at the Mets' minor league camp in Port St. Lucie, Fla. in Feb. 2022 and said his goal was to be healthy and there was no timeline for his return to the mound. Things unfortunately did not go as planned, but he felt support from the Mets doing what's best for his career.
"The goal for this season was just for me to be healthy and feeling good whenever that should be," Allan said. "At this point, I’m not really thinking too much about a timeline. I’m more so just wanting to feel good. I know the organization just wants me to feel good and feel really confident that I’m ready to go. There’s no real timeline on coming back...
"I think at this point, everybody just kind of wants to do what’s best for me. I know the organization has been really good about wanting to do what’s best for me. Really, I think it’s on me when I feel ready to go.”
Allan added at the time: “I think any time you go through a TJ rehab, the most important thing is the ligament heals properly and that you’re feeling good, you’re feeling strong, you’re feeling confident. Because there’s really no point for someone at my age to push. There’s no point, there’s no real gain. I think everybody kind of sees it that way. It took a little bit of time – obviously as a competitor, someone as competitive as myself, all you want to do is pitch against hitters, all you want to do is start throwing, throwing against bullpens, get hitters in the box, but I think as I’ve gotten a little older, matured, you just start to realize the bigger picture of baseball that you don’t want to pitch in Double-A, and that’s it. I want to pitch 12 years in the big leagues, be a Hall of Famer, be someone like Jacob deGrom that people can remember.”