When Adam Wainwright received the news he was going to need Achilles surgery one of the people he reached out to was Mark Mulder. The former Cardinals pitcher turned ESPN broadcaster tore his own Achilles during a comeback attempt with the Los Angeles Angels during Spring Training in 2014.
“It wasn’t about advice, I think it was more about telling him what to expect,” said Mulder of their talk. “Granted, I’m not trying to come back and pitch like what he’s going to need to do, but I’m good. It’s never going to feel the same. It’s never going to be as good as it was before, but it’s not disabling. I’m not playing a basketball league, I’m not doing some of those things–but I could be. You can move like you did before, but it just takes a long time.”
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Mulder is about 14-15 months since his surgery and similar to what Ryan Howard shared about his recovery from Achilles surgery, he agreed this is a rehab process that trying to do more can work against you.
“You cannot push it all and it was frustrating,” emphasized Mulder. “There were times–the anti-gravity treadmill, that was huge for me. You start in the pool for awhile, once it’s weight-bearing you get on that anti-gravity treadmill and whether it’s walking, running, you kind of train yourself how to walk again. There’s so many little muscles, everything in your feet and ankles that you need to strengthen over this process, that’s what makes it so tedious.
“It took me probably three, three and half hours, five days a week. Half of it you’re not really sweating. It’s just little things–whether it was picking up marbles, scrunching towels with your toes. All that stuff. It was just very tedious stuff and if you try to stretch it too quick or put weight on it too quick, you can technically almost stretch it out to where it becomes bad. It almost ruins it because you’ve got to stretch it and then strengthen it and then stretch it and strengthen it. It’s all part of the process of coming back from it.”
And contrary to some belief, Mulder thinks that it being the left Achilles, the landing leg, for Wainwright may take extra time for him to return to pitching form.
“Just because Adam’s not a guy who jumped off the mound,” explained Mulder. “I wasn’t either. That was my push off leg, but you’re landing leg–it’s going to be a while, it’s going to be five or six months before he can really balance, like say on a balance board on one-leg. When you throw, you land on that leg and you brace yourself on it. You rotate on it and you have to then be able to get out over that front foot also. That’s where you then have to have the range of motion–you can’t get out over your front foot if you don’t have the range of motion in your Achilles. Until that thing is fully stretched out and strengthened, it’s going to be tough for him to get that range over that ankle or over that foot to throw the correct way because the last thing you want to see is for him to create any bad habits throwing wise because then maybe that injures something else.”
With any thoughts for another baseball comeback behind him, Mulder is looking to get back on the golf course, where he has a goal of winning the American Century Golf Classic, which is held each July at Lake Tahoe.
“The golf game’s fine, although I haven’t been playing much,” said Mulder, who despite the mentioned goal as no illusions of turning into a professional golfer. “There’s no ‘pro’ anywhere,” he assured. “I’m friends with enough tour guys to know they can beat me with their eyes closed and barefooted. There’s a big difference between how good I am compared to pro golfers.”
GARCIA REHAB START
–Jaime Garica made his first rehab start for the Memphis Redbirds (AAA) on Sunday. He gave up just one hit in a 20-pitch 1st inning and followed that up with just a hit and striking out the side again on 20 pitches in the 2nd inning.
The 3rd inning got off to a solid start as Garcia had a chance to pitch around a runner at third base with two outs, but three hits, a walk, and hit batsman instead led to Jaime giving way to a reliever.
Garcia finished with a line of 2.2 innings pitched, 6 hits, 5 earned runs, 2 BBs, 3 Ks. He threw 72 pitches/42 strikes.
photo credit: Jeff Curry, Debby Wong, Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
