A different sort of feeling appeared in Steven Brault’s left arm that he couldn’t quite identify.
It came during the first inning of a Grapefruit League game on March 19 against the Orioles. At first, he thought his triceps were starting to cramp. Then he completed a second inning, and knew it was far worse than a cramp.
After some stretching and testing out the arm with trainers, Brault was surprised to hear the diagnosis.
“It felt great in the bullpen before the game,” he said. “You know, it was just like, 'Hey, guess what, Steven? You don't have a lat anymore. Suck it.'”
Although that probably wasn’t an exact depiction of those events during the spring, the 28-year-old southpaw was given a 10-12 week timeline return from a strain in the latissimus dorsi on his pitching arm. Part of his return involves building up a starter’s workload -- which is something Trevor Cahill and Chad Kuhl have had to do in the regular season. So, that timeline still seems accurate as he’s able to involve the injured shoulder area in his full-body workouts.
Despite this progress, he’s still not quite reached the point where he’s able to throw.
“You feel really good, but the truth is that throwing a baseball is such a violent motion,” Brault said. “It really pulls on all those little muscles and tendons in your shoulder, back and elbow. Throwing itself is such a specific, difficult motion on the body that you really have to make sure that it's actually fully healed before you can start doing that.
“Otherwise, you rush it and then it gets worse or just prolongs the process.”
Brault allowed five earned runs in eight spring innings, two of which came during the start in which he had gotten injured. He was shut down with a separate injury to his left shoulder last March, but worked up to 11 appearances and 42 2/3 innings when the pandemic-shortened season began in July.
“I think that having that experience is going to be helpful in being able to tell if my body is ready,” Brault said. “Even though it's obviously a different injury, just knowing how it feels when you start throwing and it starts to feel strong again, I think that's the main thing.
“The human body is a jerk sometimes.”
His 3.38 ERA and .195 opponents’ batting average were the best among Pirates with at least 30 innings pitched in 2020. After the club traded away Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon this offseason, it was evident that Brault was expected to be an important figure at the front of the team’s rotation in 2021.
Going from a potential opening day starter candidate to the 60-day injured list has been a cause of tremendous frustration off the field as well. For an incredibly sociable person like Brault, being away from the clubhouse and unable to build up or maintain personal relationships with his teammates has made this recovery even more difficult.
“I do the best I can with text, but it's just not quite the same,” Brault said. “You can't get that same kind of back-and-forth deal as you can in person. I miss that part of it a lot. I'm hoping that I'm still doing the best I can. I really do like those interpersonal relationships and I am missing out on a lot.”
After being asked about Brault’s “best” at staying connected, Derek Shelton could only laugh and offer praise for his consistent ability to remain in touch.
“Steven has a really good idea of what the culture is up here and what we’re trying to do and what we’re trying to build,” Shelton said. “And the fact that he’s able to articulate that to our younger group of guys who missed all of last year — and some of them have no exposure to the major league staff or they have no exposure to what we put in place last year — so it’s important.”
Since the injury, Brault has stayed behind in Bradenton, Fla., and is working with some of the other injured Pirates hurlers like Blake Cederlind, Jose Soriano and Cody Ponce. He was quick to point out that it was fortunately a very limited group. But he’s also done his best to make his presence felt among the young pitching prospects at Pirate City.
“I think most of the talking that I've done has been about mentality, because the truth is a lot of these guys ... just have better stuff than I do,” Brault said. “They have a better slider, they have a better fastball, but it doesn't always translate to success because there's certain mental parts of the game that you learn as you go up.”
Brault pointed to Luis Oviedo’s difficult outing Monday night, in which he really was fed his first taste of big-league failure. It’s something that happens to everybody. And Brault is helping to make sure that the prospects in Pirate City have a proper mental foundation for when they reach that point in their careers.
“They have pitching coaches. They're doing their mechanics work, they're getting their work in the gym, so I think that it can be helpful to kind of get a little bit of help on the mental side of the game,” Brault said. “I also talk about how fun it is to play in the big leagues. Get them hyped, get them to want to go. Hey, do everything you can, work as hard as you can, to move up as fast as possible, because the big leagues are so much better than the minor leagues. That's just the truth.”
Being away from the field allowed Brault to watch Musgrove, a former teammate and fellow alumnus of Grossmont High School in El Cajon, Calif., throw the first no-hitter in Padres’ history last week against the Rangers. Brault said he watched every pitch of the historic no-no and tries his best to watch all of his former teammates and Pirates’ rotation castoffs when he can.
“ I’ve talked to him a little bit. He’s Joe. He’s like, ‘Yeah man, it was pretty awesome.’ And it’s like, ‘That’s all you’ve got, man?’” Brault said. “But he’s nasty, so you love to see it. Good guy doing good things. I’m happy for him.”
Musgrove is scheduled to start against the Pirates on Wednesday night at PNC Park.
