“Pristine” is not a medical grade. There is no way BOC is going to say in a press conference, “Yeah, he’s got a lot of UCL inflammation, maybe a partial tear, but he might be able to fight through it later in the season”. He’s going to present vague optimism without outright lying, if he can.
FYI, Google lists 4-8 weeks rest as a possible non-surgical recovery for a Grade 2 UCL strain, or a partial UCL tear. Shocker - the high end of that is what his timeline has been. It’s generally not a very high % success for high velocity pitchers though. The tear will heal with scar tissue that is not as strong as the original tissue, leading to higher chance of repeat injury. That’s why many folks just go ahead and opt for surgery if there’s a high % chance they’ll need it anyway.
Once the inflammation or partial tear happens, it’s strictly a pain management thing. You generally can’t ever fully heal it by rest, if you are a starting pitcher. It’s going to require surgery a lot more often than it doesn’t. After going through this whole thing with JT Ginn in 2019 and Pico in 2024, figured folks would know what was up by now.