The meetings begin at roughly the same time.
To find them, walk past the deserted major league clubhouse at the Orioles spring training complex in Sarasota, Florida, and into the training room, where the same suspects are gathered every morning except Sunday. Just listen for the sound of the previous night’s Orioles game playing on the television and the hum of various recovery machines.
There, Orioles major and minor league pitchers dealing with career-altering injuries congregate. This is their treatment time, not a formal support group, but it’s essentially become one as they lean on each other for morale, advice and friendship as they work their way back.
“Rehab is sometimes very monotonous, very boring,” Tyler Wells said. “Some of the guys may struggle with it mentally, may struggle with their emotions. Some guys may just be frustrated physically that they are not able to go out there and compete. I know I’ve dealt with all of those things.”
Some faces come and go. Danny Coulombe was there for most of June and July after getting elbow surgery but traveled with the major league team in August and is now nearing a return. Others, such as Wells and Kyle Bradish, have spent almost every day there since getting Tommy John surgery in June, with the exception of two trips to check in with the Orioles.
They all know the deal. They all know how special this season could have been had they been healthy. They also know how tough it can be to think like that. So instead they’ve taken this time to help the next generation in both practical ways — Coulombe bought new shower shoes for minor leaguers after finding out they all shared one pair — and intellectual ways, answering any and every question thrown at them.
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Getting the bad news
Six months ago, Wells walked into that same complex in Sarasota in the best shape of his life. Every player says that at the start of spring training, but for Wells it was true. He spent his offseason disciplined, honing his nutrition and training plan.
But, all spring, something wasn’t quite right. His velocity wasn’t there, and a bad feeling crept in.
By the time the season started, his arm felt dead. He made just three starts before he was placed on the injured list in April, a move at the time that was described as precautionary, to give his elbow soreness time to calm down. It never did, and in June he had UCL repair surgery, his second major elbow procedure after having Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery in 2019.
“It was frustrating,” Wells said. “I was excited to get into the season. I was excited to contribute and to be able to see the hype around Baltimore and to be able to contribute to a playoff team.”
He plans to attack his rehab so he can come back stronger, and right now that looks like trying to make his legs the strongest they’ve ever been. He isn’t doing anything with his upper body yet — he even bought a machine that launches balls for his dog, Buckley, to chase so he doesn’t have to strain his elbow.
“I’m not getting any younger,” Wells said. “I know that a career in baseball can be short and it can be long, but it’s really up to me and what I do during this rehab process that can set me up for success or it can cause failure. Right now, I’m doing everything I possibly can to make sure I’m successful when I come back.”
Wells’ injury wasn’t expected. Bradish’s was. He experienced elbow pain in the offseason, and he and team discussed Tommy John surgery then. Instead, he received a platelet-rich-plasma injection, a less invasive attempt to see if he could work through the injury and play the season.
He ended up making eight starts, pitching to a 2.75 ERA, before it became clear he would need surgery.
“We were marveling at how well he was pitching with it,” general manager Mike Elias said. “He gave us everything he had.”
Bradish had Tommy John surgery with an internal brace in June. Within two weeks, the Orioles had lost Bradish, Wells, Coulombe and John Means to long-term elbow procedures. Four key pieces of their team, down just like that.
A cold realization
The training room was quiet.
Bradish, Wells and Coulombe went to Sarasota to begin their rehab after their surgeries, situating themselves in an environment that typically includes only minor leaguers during the heat of the summer.
Rehab is already monotonous. For four to five hours a day, six days a week, for months on end, they work on getting their elbows back to full strength. They could at least in the meantime, Wells thought, have some fun with the minor leaguers — most of them there to play on the Orioles’ Florida Complex League team.
Wells thought maybe the younger players were afraid of them, so he did the only thing he thought he could do to break the ice. He started jostling them.
“It’s very boring,” Wells said. “Being able to keep it loose, keep it fun for a lot of the guys, especially the young guys that are down there, for us it’s just a way to connect and bond with them.”
Soon, the connections started forming. The younger players had questions, so many questions, for the major leaguers. What’s it like in the majors? What did they do to get there? How do they make sure that this injury doesn’t lead to them throwing their opportunity away?
There’s a community down there among the crew now, even a fantasy football league for the injured players.
No one wants to be there, but at least they have each other.
Finding hope
As the injured players bonded, the Orioles moved on. Reinforcements came from inside the organization and out, and by the time Wells and Bradish made their first trip to Baltimore in August, over half the roster had turned over.
Albert Suárez and Cade Povich didn’t make the team out of spring training but were elevated later. Zach Eflin, Seranthony Domínguez, Burch Smith, Matt Bowman and Gregory Soto weren’t even in the organization when the elbow surgeries occurred in June. Now they are all important players on a team clinging to a playoff spot.
That was supposed to be Bradish and Wells. Means, too. Bradish was hoping to build off his fourth-place finish in American League Cy Young voting last year. Wells and Means wanted to finally get through another major league season after injuries and struggles interrupted their past three.
They know how detrimental it is, though, to focus on that. They try to think about the positives. They plan to join the team for the postseason — potentially even the clinching celebrations — which could come as early as Thursday. And next season, if everything goes right, that could be them back on the mound.
“Next year, just like this year, we are going to have a real shot of doing something special in Baltimore,” Wells said. “I want to be a big contributing factor for that.”
A few weeks ago, as Wells drove to meet the team, he started daydreaming about what his return will be like. He pictured his walk-up song blasting through the speakers, the lights flashing as he ran out from the dugout. He envisioned himself taking that deep breath on the mound again as he prepared to throw his first pitch and felt the adrenaline shooting through him as he sat in his car.
That moment is what he’s centering his rehab around. He wants that feeling again, and he knows, with the support they’ve created, he can find it.
