After knee surgery last fall, Mariners reliever Austin Adams ‘grateful’ to be a full go at camp
Three hundred days had passed since Austin Adams last pitched in a game at T-Mobile Park.
Perhaps the energy wasn’t quite the same when he trotted out from bullpen Saturday afternoon for his first intrasquad appearance. The ballpark was about 17,000 people lighter, after all, and he was gearing up to pitch against his own teammates.
But, he was finally back on the mound in a game situation, showcasing what made him such a valuable reliever to the Seattle Mariners last season before his season-ending knee injury in September.
He faced a quick four batters in one scoreless inning of work, struck out two of them and walked one on 19 pitches, and his fastball touched 95 mph on the stadium radar gun.
Adams looked again like the reliever who struck out the side in the ninth inning against the White Sox on Sept. 15, the last time he pitched in a game in Seattle.
And the Mariners won’t hold the 29-year-old right-hander back this summer.
“No hesitations,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said on a video call with reporters last week. “Not holding back at all. ... He looks really good. We’re fortunate. He played such a big role for us last year in being able to use him in the seventh, eighth, ninth inning, and that’s how we anticipate using him this year.”
It was six days after Adams picked up that win against Chicago that his season came to an abrupt end. He threw just eight pitches in Baltimore before he twisted his left knee trying to avoid a collision with a runner at first base. A later MRI scan revealed the tear, Adams was projected to miss 6-8 months, and underwent surgery on Oct. 15.
Last week, after throwing to live batters in a BP session for just the second time since surgery, Adams was glad to finally be back on the mound.
“I had baseball taken away from me Sept. 21,” he said during a video call with reporters. “So, throughout all of this, the days I wake up I’m sore now, it’s just like, ‘Hey, I’d much rather be in this position right now than on the operating table like I was on Oct. 15.’
“So, I’m just really grateful that I’m back here and given this opportunity.”
It was a long road. Adams headed home to Tampa during the offseason to begin the long recovery process before eventually reporting to spring training in Arizona ready to ramp up activity again.
“He worked his tail off,” Servais said. “He did not back off. He was really progressing nicely. Right when we got shut down he was just starting to throw, but he continued with all of his work, his rehab.”
By the time Major League Baseball shut down camp in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Adams said he was playing catch out to 60 feet.
“That was good to get that under my belt before I went back home,” he said. “Then I just built a home gym worked out, ran, did a lot of throwing inside my garage.”
Adams can’t pinpoint exactly when he stopped worrying about his knee, but said it was around the time he “got back to throwing on a mound, got five or six bullpens under my belt” and started to see his velocity return.
“The first one was mid-80s,” he said. “I was like, ‘What the heck’s going on?’ So, a little nervous, and then it just fully came back as I got more comfortable on the mound. I can’t give you a specific date, but the more I threw the better my knee started to feel.”
He tried to stay focused on the eventual goal of returning the mound completely healthy, recognizing the improvements each time he pitched and sticking to the program he set up with the Mariners medical staff and the doctor who performed his surgery.
“There were some mental hurdles I kind of had to get over, but once I once I got past those it was just throwing a baseball again, working out, running,” he said.
When it was clear the baseball shutdown would last several months, Adams realized he could be fully recovered by the time camps resumed, and continued diligently with his work.
He threw one live BP session in Tampa during the break before reporting to camp in Seattle, and looked sharp in his first bullpen and live BP sessions — he struck out four in live BP last Wednesday — at T-Mobile Park before Saturday’s intrasquad appearance.
“I’m so blessed that I had the opportunity to not miss any games,” Adams said. “What’s going on in the world right now is pretty crazy, but I was able to not miss some games, and I was able to be ready whenever all of this opened up again.
“I’m excited to be here and excited to get back to playing.”
SHORT HOPS
Reliever Gerson Bautista met with doctors after exiting Saturday’s intrasquad game two pitches after touching 101 mph on the stadium radar gun. Servais said the 25-year-old right-hander likely won’t need surgery, but has a flexor mass strain in his right elbow. “He’s going to need some time to rehab that, of course, but fortunate it does not at this time look like it’s going to be a surgery issue based on the findings from MRI,” Servais said during Monday morning’s video call with reporters. Bautista came to Seattle in the 2018 trade that sent Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to the Mets. ... Outfielder Kyle Lewis continues rake in camp. Through two intrasquad starts Sunday, Lewis was 3-for-3 with three home runs, four RBI and two walks. “We want to wrap him in Saran Wrap right now and just stick him in a box somewhere and we’ll put him on the plane to go to Houston,” Servais joked.
