Micker Adolfo did what he could in 2018 before elbow did him in

He won’t have his health — at least not immediately — but at least Micker Adolfo has closure.

Adolfo was one of many injury updates Rick Hahn had to provide on Tuesday, and it was the most severe of them all. Hahn revealed that Adolfo will undergo Tommy John surgery on his right elbow after experiencing a setback with his throwing program. He’s expected to miss eight to 10 months.

Adolfo opened what has turned out to be a rough year for prospect health when his elbow acted up on him in the beginning of spring training. It turned out he had a partially torn UCL, but the White Sox tried nursing him through it in an attempt to 1) avoid surgery and 2) give him much-needed reps in High-A.

He played in 78 games, hitting .283/.368/.466 with 11 homers, a triple and 18 doubles as a 21-year-old serving as Winston-Salem’s DH. The batting average was a career high, as was the 9.9 percent walk rate. The 27.2 percent strikeout rate was a career low, at least in any season where Adolfo accrued even a decent sample size.

Basically, his hit tool was the biggest area of concern, and that’s the area in which he made the biggest strides. He received positive reports from evaluators who watched him, making a fan out of Keith Law, to name one example.

It seemed like the Sox and Adolfo both got what they could out of an awkward balancing act before the other master needed serving. Adolfo couldn’t go much longer before any setback would take a big bite out of the 2019 season. Rick Hahn sounded sanguine about the circumstances:

“We’re hopeful to have him back in the vicinity of 8-10 months, which would have him hopefully with an affiliate by May 1 of next year,” Hahn said. “Obviously not great news for Micker, but going back to Spring Training, initially we were concerned he was going to end up missing the entire year, and at least this way Micker was able to get over 300 plate appearances at Winston-Salem.

“He had a very solid year from a development standpoint, and will be back in time — assuming everything goes smoothly — with a chance for essentially a full season in 2019. It should not set him behind too far developmentally, but obviously not great news for the kid personally.”

The question is whether these 334 plate appearances are enough to sustain the clear upward momentum he generated last year, because he doesn’t have much room to lose ground.

Normally an abbreviated age-21 season wouldn’t be cause for concern for a guy who showed he could handle High-A. However, the White Sox added Adolfo to their 40-man roster before the season, an unexpected move that might’ve been a reaction to the San Diego Padres’ super-aggressive Rule 5 strategy the season before.

The result is that 2018 is less Adolfo’s age-21 season and more his first option year. And through his first of three option years, Adolfo only has one year under his belt with at least 100 games, which came at Kannapolis last season. Adolfo has averaged just 43 games in his other five.

That’s why the Sox tried to do what they could around the injury. Missing the entire year with Tommy John surgery wouldn’t have counted as an option year, but then they would’ve let that sorely needed year of progress dangle. They probably chose the right course, at least after the roster decision was made.

(It’s worth noting that the Padres’ Rule 5 strategy hasn’t panned out, at least at the most aggressive end. Allen Cordoba, the guy who went from rookie ball to the pros, is hitting .169/.178/.225 in the High-A California League, although post-concussion issues could be a bigger factor.)

There’s individual prospect disappointment here, but it’s exacerbated by the systemwide health issues that have suppressed some rebuild enthusiasm. Injuries claimed Jake Burger for all of 2018 and maybe Zack Burdi, too. They truncated seasons for Luis Robert, Alec Hansen, Dane Dunning, Kade McClure and others.  Even their two first-day draft picks are dealing with issues (Nick Madrigal with a hamstring, Steele Walker with an oblique). Here’s hoping Eloy Jimenez gets back on the field in the seven to 10 days.

It’s also a blow for the international operation, which still is trying to matriculate its first player from the Caribbean to Double-A. Adolfo stood the best chance of doing so, and it’s not clear who even stands the best chance at beating him to meaningful time in Birmingham. It might be somebody like Luis Martinez if he switches to relief work, but the Sox are still searching for their first success story from the Marco Paddy Era who isn’t Fernando Tatis Jr.

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