Cleveland Guardians reliever Trevor Stephan underwent Tommy John surgery in late March 2024.
He has completed every step of his recovery process, with the necessary inner strength and patience to keep powering through.
He is now in the middle of a rehab assignment, getting ready to return to the Guardians’ active roster in the upcoming weeks.
Things are going well, but there is one potentially concerning development with Stephan at the moment: his pre-surgery velocity still isn’t all the way back yet.
“Stephan only topped out at 93.1 mph in his first outing with Columbus last night,” Guardians Prospective posted on X.
Stephan only topped out at 93.1 mph in his first outing with Columbus last night. https://t.co/CqN0pU6d0U
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) June 18, 2025
Before going under the knife, Stephan sat in the 95-96 mph range, with the potential to reach back for a couple of extra mph beyond that.
The fact that he topped out at 93.1 mph is slightly concerning because he is more than a year removed from the procedure.
His results in his first Triple-A game weren’t satisfactory, as he conceded a run in 0.2 innings, walking two and failing to log a strikeout.
It’s not that uncommon for pitchers returning from major elbow surgery to take a bit longer to recover their full velocity.
Still, it’s important to point out that some of them never get it back, such as former Guardian Noah Syndergaard, for example.
The Guardians have no choice but to keep giving Stephan tune-up innings in Triple-A, hoping that the fastball velocity comes back eventually.
Sometimes, it just takes a while.
Cleveland has high hopes for Stephan in the 2025 campaign, but they know he has to ace his rehab assignment first.
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