By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU weekend starting pitcher Cooper Moore is done for the season with a broken bone in his right, pitching arm that a second doctor’s opinion just revealed, LSU coach Jay Johnson said on his weekly radio show on Monday night.
Cooper, a junior transfer from Kansas, will receive a medical redshirt and plans to return to the Tigers in 2027 as a fourth-year junior. Cooper was 3-3 with a 3.38 earned run average as LSU’s No. 2 starter this season.
In six starts and 32 innings, he struck out 39 with just seven walks and three home runs with a .245 batting average allowed. Moore has been out since injuring his arm against Oklahoma on March 20. The original diagnosis was a triceps injury in his right arm.
“He has basically a broken bone in there that we got a second opinion on,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, he’s going to be out for the season. It’s in his best interest, and the positive news is he will be on our team next year. It’s a four-month surgery.”
Johnson said the surgery will be an olecranon procedure, which is for a stress fracture of a bone at the tip of the elbow.
“The thought was (from the first opinion) was that he could throw through it,” Johnson said. “But what this does is it allows him to get a medical redshirt and allows him to still be a junior next year. So he’ll be back and pitching for LSU next year. He’ll still have the junior leverage (with the Major League Baseball Draft in the summer of 2027).”
Moore was 7-3 with a save and a 3.96 ERA at Kansas last season with 85 strikeouts and 19 walks in 88 and two-thirds innings.
“I obviously would’ve loved to have him,” Johnson said. “But I’ll be honest with you, if we didn’t score runs, it would’ve been kind of a waste to throw him in this series, lose the opportunity for that (redshirt). In the meantime, he just didn’t recover as well from the mid-week throwing.”
Moore threw last week in practice to prepare for the rest of the season.
“He threw the bullpen, and then threw again, and it was kind of barking at him,” Johnson said. “We got a second opinion. This is what we got on the opinion, so we’re going to get that taken care of ASAP (as soon as possible), get him back for next year.”
LSU (23-18, 6-12 Southeastern Conference) has been struggling mightily at the plate and has lost six straight SEC games. The Tigers host the University of New Orleans (17-25, 7-14 Southland Conference) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on SEC Network+.
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