NEW YORK -- Marlins No. 7 prospect Jake Eder will undergo Tommy John surgery, which will most likely sideline him for the 2022 season.

Eder was having a breakout 2021 for the Marlins' Double-A Pensacola affiliate during his first professional season, striking out 99 batters in 71 1/3 innings with a 1.77 ERA and a 0.981 WHIP across 15 starts. In those 15 outings, he went five or fewer frames in 11 of them. Had he qualified, Eder would’ve been among the league leaders in various pitching categories. For his efforts, he earned a spot in the 2021 SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game alongside fellow top 100 prospect and Blue Wahoos teammate Max Meyer in July. But Eder last started on Aug. 13, throwing 56 pitches.

"I will say, I think he opened a lot of people's eyes across the industry," general manager Kim Ng told a small group of reporters on Thursday at Citi Field. "I think we as a group at the Marlins knew that he was a pretty interesting player, and I think he proved that on a fairly consistent basis this year, and again, really opened up the eyes of a lot of people in the industry. So disappointed for him that this happened. But I think in terms of the timing, we just wanted to make sure that we did it in a way that we could get him out there as soon as possible."

Selected in the fourth round of the 2020 MLB Draft, the 22-year-old southpaw had never thrown more than 58 frames between collegiate and summer-ball games. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he appeared in just four games (20 innings) during his final season at Vanderbilt.

According to MLB Pipeline, Eder had maintained the velocity on his four-seam fastball, sitting at 93-96 mph and touching 98. The quality of his low-80s slider had given him a second plus pitch, and he also had shown more feel for his low-80s tumbling changeup.

Eder isn’t the only highly ranked prospect in Miami’s third-ranked system to need season-ending surgery. Sixto Sánchez (No. 45 overall) underwent a procedure in July to repair a capsular tear and clean out the back side of his right shoulder.