Fresh off surgery, Josh Sborz joins Rangers to spread holiday cheer at children’s hospital

Josh Sborz made a hospital visit Wednesday.
For a change, it wasn’t for himself.
His surgically repaired right shoulder still a bit stiff three weeks post-op, Sborz, along with a handful of other Texas Rangers, spent part of the afternoon at Medical City Children’s Hospital in Dallas spreading a bit of needed holiday cheer on the oncology floor. He signed autographs, visited with patients and handed out some Ranger swag with a smile, just so long as he didn’t try to raise his arm toward the sky. It’s still a bit too soon for that.
Sborz underwent a debridement procedure in the right rotator cuff on Nov. 20. The shoulder was a continual issue for him in 2024. He went on the injured list a week into the season and rotated through three more times. Sborz returned from a third trip to the IL in the final week of the season, got one out and went back on the IL to finish things out. It was a far cry from the previous season, when Sborz got the final out of the season — the entire MLB season — to secure the Rangers’ first World Series title.
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Texas Rangers visit Medical City Children’s Hospital in Dallas The Texas Rangers visit Medical City Children’s Hospital in Dallas on Dec. 4, 2024. (Azul Sordo/Staff Photographer)
That final out in a dominant extra month of the season pushed him to a career-high 64⅓ innings. He also had a month less to recover from the workload because of the playoff run. Consider it a trade-off: a World Series title in exchange for an overtaxed shoulder.
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“It’s the price I paid for a lack of recovery,” Sborz said.
He will get plenty of recovery time this winter. The typical recovery time for the shoulder procedure he underwent, which was more of a cleanup of some fraying tissue rather than a more intensive repair, is six to eight months. That was the good news from surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache.
Photos: Texas Rangers visit Medical City Children’s Hospital for the holidays 16 images View Gallery
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“With an elbow, things are a little more black and white,” Sborz said. “It shows up on the MRI. With a shoulder, you don’t know. He said when we open you up, we will get a better idea. It could be relatively good or really bad. We were pretty fortunate.”
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Still, he’s on Week 3 of the recovery. He won’t be able to throw for another six to 10 weeks. And then it will be a slow build. The hope is that he can return sometime during the first half of the season. The early part of the return window might make him an option by the latter stages of May, a third of the way into the season.
The Rangers can use him. The bullpen is currently barren. Saves leader Kirby Yates is off to free agency. So is setup man David Robertson. And José Leclerc, too. Together they ranked as the top three on the team in appearances. Also a free agent: José Ureña, who was fifth on the team in appearances and third among all pitchers (starters or relievers) in innings pitched. You get the picture. The cupboard is empty.
The Rangers have signed platoon catcher Kyle Higashioka in free agency and are targeting a reliable (read: expensive) starting pitcher, too. It means that however the bullpen gets reconstructed, president of baseball operations Chris Young is going to have to spread relatively little money around to multiple spots unless owner Ray Davis offers up a late-winter cash injection if the ongoing TV rights negotiations turn more lucrative than expected. Bottom line: Expect Young to have to do a lot with a little.
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A healthy Sborz, who turns 31 on Dec. 17, could be a real weapon in a bullpen mostly likely to evolve as the season progresses. The Rangers have flirted with him as a closer in the past, but never gave him a long look. When healthy, his fastball has averaged about 97 mph and his breaking ball has elite swing-and-miss ability. In 2023, he ranked in the top-two percentile on swing-and-miss rate and the top-10 percentile in strikeout rate.
Saving games is still a long way away. At the moment, he’s limited to signing autographs and bringing a little seasonal joy to some patients facing an even longer road than his. But when he left the building Wednesday, everybody had smiles on their faces. Come the middle of summer, he’s hoping when he leaves the building each night, he’ll leave Bruce Bochy and Rangers fans smiling, too.
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