Right-hander Casey Kelly has made the decision to get Tommy John surgery.
Kelly missed three months last season because of a strain in the elbow, and after a discouraging spring as far as the elbow’s health and stamina is concerned, will undergo Tommy John.
Kelly felt discomfort again in his March 7 outing.
On Friday, General Manager Josh Byrnes confirmed the surgery will take place the first week of April.
MLB.com regarded Kelly as the fourth-best prospect in the Padres organization. He had a 7.71 ERA in three spring appearances and allowed six runs on 12 hits.
Kelly came back to San Diego last week to get an MRI and X-Ray on the elbow but was waiting for a second-opinion before deciding to get the surgery.
"It's not a black and white thing," Kelly told Padres.com on the decision to have surgery or not. "If nothing happened last year, we would probably try to rehab it. Since we tried to do that last year, we're kind of running out of options before having surgery. I've tried the rehab course, and that hasn't worked."
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Kelly came to the Padres during the 2010 Adrian Gonzalez trade with the Boston Red Sox.
He was an accomplished football player who was recruited by Tennessee as a quarterback before he signed with the Red Sox. He played shortstop and pitcher in his first couple years in the minors and didn’t switch fully to the mound until 2010.
Corey Luebke and Joe Wieland, who both had the surgery in 2012, could rejoin the team by late summer.
