The news came down on Tuesday morning from MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian — Cubs top catching prospect Miguel Amaya will undergo Tommy John surgery.

North Side Bound’s No. 15 prospect played just the first month of the 2021 campaign before going down with a forearm strain and missing the remainder of the year. Surely Amaya spent the last 4+ months resting and rehabbing that strain with hopes that surgery would not be needed. Now, surgery is necessary and so will be an even longer rehab process.

Position players obviously come back quicker than the pitchers’ standard full year in return from TJ, but that would only be to take at-bats as a DH for Amaya, probably around mid-season next year. That means we likely won’t see Miggy behind the dish until the 2023 season.

By the time that next full-season rolls around for him, he’ll have spent the entire 2020 season with no in-game action, nearly all of 2021 on the shelf, and most of 2022 out of the game. That’s a rough forecast for a catcher in some of his most developmentally formative years of his career.

We’re wishing all the best to Miggy on his long road back.

Feature photo of Miguel Amaya by Jordan Bastian