The LSU Tigers bullpen took a major hit on Monday when head coach Paul Mainieri announced that Doug Norman will miss the rest of the 2017 season.
The junior out of Fort Mill, South Carolina went down with an injury during the 9-5 victory on Sunday over Maryland. He threw 20 pitches on Sunday and after a pitch, Norman went down to one knee and the Tigers were hoping it wasn’t anything severe.
However, an MRI on Monday revealed that he had suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament that will require Tommy John surgery.
Norman has made 47 appearances with the Tigers as the main setup man, posting a 6-2 record and a 2.82 ERA.
This is the second injury to the LSU bullpen as senior Alden Cartwright was ruled out before the season started due to an elbow injury he suffered back in 2016.
With the pair of losses, the Tigers still have experience in closer Hunter Newman and Russell Reynolds and Austin Bain. They also have players that will be seeing more experience in the next few weeks as we get closer to conference play like freshman Todd Peterson and sophomore Caleb Gilbert.
More importantly, this may change how Mainieri uses his pitchers during the midweek as he has had a tendency to use a “Jack Wholestaff” approach and having one less pitcher in the pen could cause problems with that gameplan.