According to Mark Zuckerman of Nats Insider, Nationals prospect Sammy Solis will likely require Tommy John Surgery on the pitching elbow that has bothered him for the past handful of months.
The 23-year-old lefty, rated by Baseball America as the organization's sixth-best prospect, had been dealing with elbow issues since November, when he was shut down from pitching in the Arizona Fall League with discomfort. Consultations with multiple doctors produced a difference of opinions, so the Nationals instructed Solis to take the rest of the winter off and then report to spring training and attempt to resume a throwing program.
Solis was ranked as a top-ten prospect in the Nationals system on most of the major ranking services, and either the first or second best left-hander with Matt Purke. He will visit with Dr. Lewis Yocum today, the surgeon who performed the procedure on Stephen Strasburg and Jordan Zimmermann in the past few years. The Nationals expect to hear from Dr. Yocum by the end of the day if the surgery is necessary.
We'll have much more on Spring Training here at SB Nation DC in the coming weeks. In the meantime, check out SB Nation's Nationals blog, Federal Baseball, for more news and notes. And don't forget to visit Baseball Nation, the MLB hub of SB Nation for information from around the league.