Diamondbacks reliever A.J. Puk avoids surgery after suffering elbow injury

PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks left-handed reliever A.J. Puk will not undergo surgery on his injured left elbow, manager Torey Lovullo confirmed to reporters after an 8-3 loss at the New York Mets on Tuesday.

The D-backs placed Puk on the 15-day injured list on April 19 with left elbow inflammation. He had an MRI two days later and sought additional medical opinions from Neal ElAttrache and Keith Meister, two renowned orthopedic surgeons.

Lovullo said Puk will not throw for the next two-to-three weeks and will pick up a ball once asymptomatic.

“There’s no surgery involved, which is great news,” Lovullo said. “Once he gets asymptomatic, we’ll take it to the next level. I don’t want to get too far ahead of this. These two-to-three weeks of shutdown, no throwing, treatment only and just get healthy.”

Puk entered this season in a significant back-end role for the bullpen, splitting save opportunities with right-hander Justin Martinez. The D-backs opted for a closer by matchup approach until someone separated himself, which worked pretty well early on.

The 6-foot-7 southpaw made eight appearances this year before landing on the IL, working a 3.38 ERA with four saves.

Last year, he was one of the most dominant relievers in MLB after joining the D-backs at the trade deadline from the Miami Marlins — who acquired prospects Deyvison De Los Santos and Andrew Pintar for Puk.

Puk made 30 appearances, in which time he ranked fifth in MLB with a 44.4% strikeout rate and worked a 1.32 ERA.

With the reliever on the IL and Joe Mantiply getting sent down to Triple-A Reno, Jalen Beeks has been the lone southpaw in the bullpen.

The D-backs’ bullpen got Kevin Ginkel back from the injured list on Tuesday, while Kendall Graveman is making his way back and facing live hitters.

Related

Mets rob Diamondbacks of several hits, Eduardo Rodriguez knocked around in lossDiamondbacks reinstate reliever Kevin Ginkel from 15-day injured listKevin Ginkel aims to improve stability of Diamondbacks' bullpenDiamondbacks allow 4 homers to drop rubber matchup vs. Nationals, lose wild card tiebreakerThe Athletic’s Bowden lists Angels pitcher Jose Soriano as trade target fit for DiamondbacksDiamondbacks try shaking up lineup to get stars going, loss sets up key rubber match vs. Nationals