Nationals could have another TJ success story in Erick Fedde
When it comes to the MLB Draft, there may not be a team with more courage than the Washington Nationals. The Nationals have had the audacity to draft pitchers who have undergone the dreaded Tommy John surgery, perhaps because of their reputation—Jordan Zimmermann, Stephen Strasburg and Taylor Jordan have come back under the franchise’s watchful eye—and Tuesday that reputation was put to the test by Erick Fedde.
The Nats selected Fedde with their first-round pick in 2014 even though he had TJ surgery just days before the draft. Entering Tuesday’s start, he had started seven games and was 3-1 with a 2.70 earned run average, .266 average against and a 4.71 K/BB ratio. Tuesday, he went five innings and allowed two runs, one earned, on five hits and three strikeouts.
Fedde is the most recent example of the Nats’ willingness to draft pitchers with new ligaments in their elbow. The Nationals drafted their No. 1 prospect—and arguably the best prospect in the game—Lucas Giolito in 2012 despite health concerns. Giolito underwent TJ in August of 2012 and he was pitching again in July of 2013. A year is recommended between the date of the surgery and a return to a mound in a competitive setting, so it is alarming the Nationals had him back on the mound in around 11 months.
The Nationals must know, or think they know, something about the surgery and its recovery that the rest of us don’t, which could be why the Nats haven’t made great overtures to sign Zimmermann and Strasburg past their impending free agencies. But it once again appears that they know what they’re doing, as Giolito is back on track stifling minor league offenses.
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The team eased Giolito back into pitching very slowly: once he came back from surgery in 2013, Giolito pitched to only five batters in his first start, seven in his second, twelve in his third and 14 in his fifth. He didn’t pitch four complete innings until his sixth start, which was on August 1 of that year—right around a year after his surgery—and he never pitched more than five innings that season.
Fedde has been similarly coddled; although Fedde had nearly three extra months of rehab before he returned to competition; and the results have been outstanding. In his first three starts, he went three, four and five innings. He has yet to go over five innings and has yet to throw more than 83 pitches in a game. If Fedde and Giolito stay healthy and continue to shine, they’ll headline a deep, young, home-grown pitching staff that can back Max Scherzer if Strasburg and Zimmermann end up elsewhere—Drew Van Orden is having a good season in Class-A Hagerstown, Austin Voth has a 2.94 ERA in Double-A Harrisburg, and 2015 fifth-round pick Taylor Hearn already has 32 strikeouts in 28 professional innings.
There is some added context to why Fedde is an especially interesting TJ case study: pitching prospects with injury concerns were key pieces in trades at this season’s deadline. Sean Manaea and John Lamb were pieces of the Ben Zobrist and Johnny Cueto trades for the Royals—Lamb is part of the TJ fraternity and Manaea has hip and abdominal injuries in his history—and Fedde’s fellow 2014 draftee and TJ recipient Jeff Hoffman was a key piece in the Troy Tulowitzki to Toronto deal. The Nationals, however, kept their best pitchers, injury history and all, and instead traded Nick Pivetta in order to land Papelbon.