Arkansas Razorbacks star outfielder Kendall Diggs was playing through an injury in 2024 that hampered his abilities. Now, head coach Dave Van Horn has shared just the extent of the injury.
According to Van Horn, Diggs has a complete tear in his labrum. That’s a difficult shoulder injury to manage that he was trying to play through and is now going to require off-season surgery.
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“You look at Kendall’s year,” Dave Van Horn said. The first 14 games, the first 15 games of the year, he’s hitting like upper .300s — .380, .370, when he slid headfirst on a wet field or an over-watered field, whatever you want to call it. It was early in the game and he kind of got stuck and he hurt that shoulder. We all kind of groaned in the dugout. We didn’t know at the time and he shook it off. Well, it’s a complete tear in his labrum.”
Kendall Diggs suffered the injury back on March 9th. That was in a non-conference game against McNeese State.
“I think it’s like front and back. So, he is right now in the process of getting lined up to have surgery to get that fixed. He could still sign and be drafted, and I think somebody might draft him. We’d love to have him back. He’d miss all of Fall. It’s his non-throwing shoulder. It’s his left shoulder.”
This season, Kendall Diggs hit .229 with a .346 OBP and a .395 slugging percentage. He also hit seven home runs and had 34 RBIs. All of those numbers were down from 2023 when he was a Second-Team All-SEC selection. It’s a step back offensively that Dave Van Horn is attributing to the injury.
“You’ve got to give him credit. I mean, how tough was he to play all year long with that injury? He hurt it a couple of more times throughout the season. He ran into the wall at Kentucky. There was another time he hurt it. He made diving catches. He just played through it. Hats off to him,” Van Horn said.
It really hurt his offense. It altered his swing, it took away a little quickness. I know it probably had to hurt when he swung at certain pitches in certain areas. In a way, he disguised it a little bit. I’ve got to give credit to him with how tough he was.”
Ultimately, tearing a labrum isn’t an uncommon injury in baseball and Van Horn has seen it before. That doesn’t make it any easier to return from, though.
“I hope we have an opportunity to coach him next year. Because he can get back and play. [Matt] Goodheart had the same injury, [Trevor] Ezell had the same injury. Those guys did nothing but hit here,” Van Horn said. “Ezell’s was on his throwing arm and he hurt before he got to Arkansas when he was at SEMO. We took him in anyway and he learned how to throw side-armed. He played first base for us. Goodheart, it was pretty bad. He got through it and did a good job for us.”
Kendall Diggs still needs to make a decision about his own future. Now through his junior season, Diggs is eligible for the MLB Draft and there is some interest there. At the same time, Dave Van Horn and Arkansas would be happy to have him back for 2025.
“Kendall, if he comes back, will have an opportunity to play outfield. Honestly, obviously, he could DH, play outfield. Who’s to say he didn’t play in the infield for us next year as well because that’s what he came here as so we’ll see,” Van Horn said.
“I’ve been in contact with him a lot, when I say a lot, a few times since the season ended. Through texting recently, couple of phone calls. I will talk to him in the next day or two about some things. He was invited to the combine to go do some conversations. I don’t know how many he had, if any. Appreciate him trying because he was hurt.”
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