Kendall Graveman, ‘electric’ in return to Mariners, embracing new bullpen role
The Mariners had a standing bet entering Saturday night’s game, manager Scott Servais said during his daily pregame video call with reporters.
What was the chance Kendall Graveman would find his way to the skipper’s office and tell him he was ready to pitch for the second straight night?
“Everybody said it was a 100% chance this was going to happen,” Servais said.
Sure enough, the 29-year-old, after returning from a month-long stint on the injured list with a stellar performance out of the bullpen Friday, showed up to the clubhouse eager for his next chance.
“He was waiting,” Servais said. “I was in a closed-door meeting, open up the door, he’s sitting in the hallway and says, ‘I’m ready to go tonight.’
“I just started busting out laughing. We knew that’s what is was going to be.”
Graveman is thrilled to be back on the mound for the Mariners, after all, even in a new role.
A starter most of his big league career, the right-hander made two for the Mariners this season before he was placed on the IL with neck spasms in early August.
While rehabbing at the Mariners’ alternate training site in Tacoma, he opened up about what has been causing the discomfort. For about two years, while also working his way back from Tommy John surgery, Graveman has been dealing with a benign bone tumor in his cervical spine.
He was honest and emotional during that conversation with reporters three weeks ago. While he had been assured by doctors the situation would not get worse, and he had resolved to continue pitching, he did not know then what a return to the Mariners’ staff this season might look like.
Graveman continued to pitch in Tacoma in shorter stints, and the club decided to try to bring him back as a reliever, and he threw an inning out of the bullpen Friday night for the first time since his rookie season with the Blue Jays in 2014.
“With the medical history, they say with time what I have will eventually burn off and stop producing pain,” he said. “But, we don’t know what that is, so right now I know what I can do. A lot of this has been trial and error, and right now pitching in shorter stints, what I did tonight, I’m able to, one help the team and two feel healthy.
“I told Skip, I told Woody (pitching coach Pete Woodworth), one inning or two innings are better than no innings in my book. I just want to be able to pitch.”
Graveman’s return was stunning. The Mariners were carrying a 3-1 lead when he entered in the seventh and he needed only 13 pitches to keep it in tact. Showing the same mid-to-upper 90s sinker velocity the Mariners saw in spring and summer camp, Graveman coolly worked groundouts from Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Nick Solak, and battled through a seven-pitch at-bat against Joey Gallo, freezing Gallo on a 97 mph sinker on the outside edge.
“I thought Kendall Graveman was electric,” Servais said postgame. “I thought his stuff was just awesome tonight. Certainly he hadn’t pitched in a while. Excited to see him out of the bullpen. He wanted to get the ball tonight and see how that was going to look, so that was awesome stuff that he fired out there.”
Graveman sat down during his postgame video call and addressed reporters with a smile.
“That was a lot of fun,” he said. “Blessed to be back out there.”
He paused for a moment, surely thinking about the uncertainty of the past several weeks.
“It’s been a little roller coaster here for a little bit, but just so thankful that I’m able to do what I’m doing right now,” he continued. “A lot of fun tonight. A lot of fun.”
The Mariners were excited to see him back in action, too. Graveman wore a new golden chain around his neck. It was a welcome back gift, he said, from friends in the rotation to wear after games he pitches in.
“It’s almost a pound. I’ll let y’all decide if it’s really or not,” Graveman joked. “I mean, we’ve got a lot of rookies, so it may or may not be real.”
Even Taijuan Walker, who was traded to the Blue Jays last month, weighed in on Twitter on Graveman’s exciting return.
“It’s fun being around the group,” Graveman said. “I think I have a lot to offer and these guys make me feel welcomed here.”
Pitching out of the bullpen is much different than being a starter — “the moments are a lot bigger,” Graveman said — and he is focused on listening and learning to those in the bullpen with experience.
Regardless of his role moving forward, though, what has been most important to him is how he has been able to return to the mound this season.
“I don’t know anyone else that’s gone through what I’ve gone through,” he said. “Like I’ve told you guys before, it’s something that’s grown me as a person, and I wouldn’t have traded it for anything. Through my weakness and through what I’ve struggled with and gone through, I’m able to become a better person, teammate, husband, father, and I’m just so thankful for the journey that I’ve been on and the way it has gone.
“At the end of the day, I love this game and I want to pitch, and it was very big for my career and who I am. Let’s continue to move forward with the bullpen. I don’t know what the future holds. None of us do with our careers, but at the same time, that was fun tonight, and I see some light at the end of the tunnel almost.
“If this is what comes out of my career because of what I’m going through, then maybe that’s why I’m going through it — to pitch out of the bullpen and be a back end of the bullpen kind of guy and go from there. I don’t know, but I know tonight was fun.”
