Playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic for the third time, trying to make some money for the offseason and wanting to showcase my ability to any teams looking for pitching help as I headed into free agency, I found myself in a very interesting situation. As I was leaving the clubhouse one day, I accidentally hit my shoulder into a doorframe where there just happened to be a hinge for a big old lock. It was a freak thing… I was talking to someone while walking backwards towards the exit and as I spun to walk forwards again, I spun my shoulder right into the hinge. I remember it clearly because my shoulder had a sharp pain right away and at the time I thought, “wow that really hurt.” I just shrugged it off because I didn’t want anyone to notice how much of an idiot I was for accidentally ramming my shoulder into the door.
After those initial moments, I kind of forgot about it for the next day or two because I didn’t have to pitch yet. My next start day which was just a couple days later and I remember not being able to get loose as I played catch. My shoulder was just tight. Usually, because of the humidity down in the DR, getting loose was not a problem at all. My pregame routine in the States would usually take around 40 minutes, including catch and bullpen. In the DR, I was ready to go in 20 minutes, like game ready. A player can literally run out to the field, do some arm circles and feel pretty good to go. Not that day though, not for me. That day, it didn’t matter how long I had, my shoulder wasn’t getting loose.
My pregame bullpen was fine in terms of pitch location, but it didn’t feel fine. I remember I couldn’t “let it eat” and get my arm speed right before going into the game. I’ve never felt anything like that so I thought my shoulder would just loosen up as I kept throwing, like what would normally happen when I felt tight and started warming up. Once I was out on the mound and competing, the catcher called a fastball and I reached back to throw… everything was fine until I pulled that ball through. All the power in my shoulder disappeared. The ball bounced twice before getting to the catcher. I felt my face flush and I was on high alert. Something was wrong with my shoulder and that might have been the last pitch of my career. I moved around the mound in a normal fashion because I knew that if I left that mound right then, my career was probably over. Getting hurt in winter ball as a free agent usually means retirement. So, I moved my arm around a little and got back on the mound.
Shake, shake, shake… changeup. Yup. I was going to float the ball to the plate with a changeup grip to see what would happen. A couple changeups later, I was out of the inning; 3 ground balls, 3 outs. I went to the pitching coach to tell him something was wrong. He knew it as well. I got pulled from the game and went into the clubhouse to do some initial testing. Common rotator cuff strength testing and UCL testing and a quick, “let’s put some ice on it and see how it feels tomorrow.”
The team didn’t order an MRI until a month later when my contract was about to be finished. I was supposed to get an ink injection so that if there were tears, they would be visible. When I went in for the MRI, doctors didn’t perform the injection. I got my results hours before my flight, and they showed a clean MRI. Without ink, nothing could be seen. I was back on a plane to the United States.
My MRI may have cleared me on paper but the reality was that my shoulder hurt and if a team gave me an opportunity, I wasn’t ready to get anybody out. I had only a few months to get healthy and the only information I had about my shoulder was an opinion from a very nice athletic trainer who felt the team in the DR was treating me unfairly by avoiding the responsibility of taking care of me. The trainer told me I probably had a SLAP tear. I didn’t understand what that was at the time, but it means superior labral tear from anterior to posterior.
My mission was to rehabilitate my shoulder and give myself an opportunity to continue to pitch. I had 4 months before minor league Spring Training started and a 24-Hour Fitness membership. I had time and a facility. I started going to the gym and using the pool 3-4 times a week because I could submerge my entire body and create resistance in every direction and with every movement. The other days I would do my traditional progressive overload strength training in the gym. That pool became my rehab center. I would stay in the water doing every single type of movement that would force the muscles around my shoulder to activate. Short quick movements. Swimming movements. Long and powerful movements. Explosive movements. High repetition and low repetition. And a whole lot of prayer. Lots of prayer.
As I trained, I listened to my body. If I felt I needed a day to recover, I took that day to recover. When I felt like I could work out efficiently, I went to the gym. I didn’t have a time schedule or a certain daily schedule. I listened to my body and alternated what I did at the gym/pool. I also waited by the phone. Reached out to my agent. Reached out to contacts I had with different organizations. Hoping for an opportunity and a light at the end of my rehab tunnel. Would there be something for me in Spring? I had a great year with the Nationals AAA team in Syracuse. I should get an opportunity with somebody, I thought.
November went by. December went by. It was late January and I had received no phone calls from any teams in the States. One day while visiting my parents and siblings in San Diego, I was sitting in my parents’ dining room when their home phone rang. I looked at the caller I.D. and didn’t recognize the number. They usually get telemarketers so I answered the phone prepared for some kind of salesman. To my surprise, it was a sports agent from Taiwan who introduced himself as the “Jerry McGuire of Asia.” He was looking to talk to me! At the time of the call, I was living in the Bay Area with my wife. The chance that I would be visiting at my parents’ house in that moment was incredibly small. The agent was wondering if I would be interested in playing professional baseball in Taiwan. YES.
I had an opportunity but I still didn’t know how my arm was. My rehabilitation had been going well. Slowly but surely, I felt more comfortable throwing a baseball with more force. I continued to just listen to my body, listen to my arm, add a little more effort, see how it felt, and adjust accordingly.
I borrowed my brother-in-law’s lacrosse net, and would throw into it. It would fire the ball back to me because it was like a trampoline. It added this extra reactionary component to my throws which I really enjoyed. It was like a pitcher’s defensive practice with firm comebackers. I also added a tiny target, the size of a dime, on the net so I had something to hit while I threw. I threw into this net 4-5 times a week and just continued to listen to my arm and my body. If my arm was tired, I rested. Simple. EFFECTIVE.
I went to Taiwan and walked into the stadium in the middle of February. I still hadn’t really tested my arm against hitters. I did throw off the mound a few times, but only for bullpens- nothing live against hitters. That mattered because when a hitter is in the box, players move faster and the intensity is higher. It’s what happens in a competition setting, especially between the lines and under the lights.
Most foreign players get to have their own routine when playing in Asia, which benefitted me greatly. I was able to continue to keep my routine and listen to my body accordingly. My first test for my rehabilitated shoulder, my first appearance in a game, was against a Korean baseball team’s minor league players. I stood on the mound wondering if my shoulder would really hold up after months of work and prayer. I told myself that it was now or never. I let that first fastball loose and saw the radar gun read at 92 mph. Then I saw another read at 93 mph a couple pitches later, which was amazing. Not only was my arm back, I was actually throwing harder than I did the season before. That began my Taiwanese baseball career and my rebirth as a pitcher in what would be one of the most interesting chapters of my baseball story.
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