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Mr. Ed -> RE: Players and prospects III (6/1/2015 1:02:11 PM)
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BOSTON — Twins pitching prospect Jason Adam finally believes he is on the road to recovery after a confusing and at times frightening period of elbow issues.
On May 21 the right-hander underwent a follow-up procedure with Dr. James Andrews, more than five months after the Twins’ medical staff inserted two screws in his throwing elbow on Dec. 10 to repair a stress fracture.
Adam, 23, was supposed to be ready by the first month of the season, but he was unable to straighten his right arm, much less throw a baseball.
“The surgery was done perfectly, but for whatever season my elbow reacted weirdly to the screws,” said Adam, acquired last August in the deal that sent Josh Willingham to the Kansas City Royals.
Upon his initial visit with Dr. Andrews, the renowned orthopedist diagnosed Adam’s condition as bursitis. Once surgery commenced, Andrews found a tremendous amount of tissue buildup in the elbow joint and through Adam’s triceps tendon.
“Dr. Andrews said he’d never seen anything like it,” Adam said. “That’s crazy to think, considering the amount of surgeries he’s done. He yanked out all that tissue and took the screws out.”
Adam, who hopes to return to the mound by instructional league in September, never had any elbow issues until last season with the Royals, when he bounced between Double-A and Triple-A.
“That was part of why I didn’t say anything,” said Adam, ranked among the Royals’ top 10 prospects before last season by Baseball America. “I was telling myself it was just soreness. It would loosen up.”
In his second outing at Double-A New Britain after joining the Twins, he “felt kind of a click,” and from there “it got drastically worse.”
He pitched through the pain at the Arizona Fall League, where he struggled to a 5.40 earned run average in 10 relief outings and experienced odd fluctuations with his velocity.
“Yeah, I’m an idiot for not saying anything,” Adam said. “It was hurting.”
That last week in Arizona, a Twins official asked Adam if he was healthy. When Adam hesitated with his answer, he was sent for a magnetic resonance imaging exam, which showed the stress fracture that had developed over time.
Instead of being added to the 40-man roster in late November, as expected, Adam was in surgery on the day of the Rule 5 draft. He was not selected.
Due for another CT scan in late August and set to speak again Monday with Dr. Andrews, Adam is cautiously optimistic he will return to the mound this fall.
“I’m hoping I’ll be throwing some innings by then,” he said, “but I’m not taking anything for granted.”
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