Noah Schultz - buy low prospect for 2026
Remember when Noah Schultz was one of the big up and coming prospects? The year was 2025. Noah Schultz was in discussions as the best lefty pitching prospect and one of the best pitching prospects in the game. His stocks were soaring and then he missed over a month of action in July and August before being shut down with patellar tendinitis, which has plummeted his value in dynasty rankings
I'm not a doctor, but speaking as someone who is both a curious individual and currently on the road to recovery with this exact injury I can speak about it from my personal experiences. Petellar tendinitis is nicknamed "jumpers knee" and it is an overuse injury that is caused through the pattern of recurring overuse rather than a single injury itself. This injury is usually the symptom of a much larger problem with muscle imbalances and too much compensation is going into the knee. As the knee is not designed to absorb forces, doing this repeatedly can cause patellar tendinitis.
It makes sense that people are concerned with how many times Noah Schultz tried to return to the field in 2025 and struggled with health, but let's remember this is an overuse injury. Most people think about how bad an injury is based on the pain associated with the injuries and since overuse injuries are less painful to an athlete than something like a dislocated body part many athletes try to play through this. This feels to me like what happened to Noah Schultz in 2025 with how he would describe it as flaring up and down.
When recovering from this injury, it's important to denote that Noah Schultz did not require any surgery. Surgery would be addressing the symptom of the pain, not what's actually causing the pain so having a less aggressive treatment approach is good for his outlook. Treating this injury does take time because not only does it require building up strength, which often takes 4-6 weeks alone, but it also requires him reteaching himself how to divert forces in his legs so they don't go into the knee. Unlike the last time where he tried to rush himself back to the field, I feel better about Noah Schultz for 2026 because he has had an extended offseason to fix things up.
