Just Mets

Bobby Parnell’s reached a critical moment in his career. He will be a free agent at year’s end, yet he has hardly pitched in the last 20 months.

He made just one appearance in 2014 – it was a blown save chance on Opening Day. He then was forced under the knife for Tommy John Surgery, completely derailing his comeback from surgery to repair a herniated disc in his neck just seven months before.

But he threw his first big league pitch in all of that time on Saturday afternoon, a meaningful moment in what has been a great trial for him since August, 2013.

“It was good to get back out there. It sent chills up my spine. It was a good day,” Parnell said.

Parnell said since he had been activated, he had excitingly been waiting for the call to start warming up and enter a game.

“I was pretty anxious,” he explained. “Every time the phone rings, you perk up. It’s been more so the past couple of days.”

The journey may be complete, but he clearly has work to do. His fastball velocity continues to sit in the low 90s consistently, and his hip and arm action are clearly slower than they were before these injury problems. It’s not clear if he will ever throw 100 mph again, and if he doesn’t he’s going to have to re-identify himself if he is to survive in this league going forward.

Parnell acknowledged in spring training the neck injury was a likely contributor to what ultimately led to Tommy John Surgery, as it affected his physical condition coming into camp last year and altered his mechanics as well.

“I would say so,” he told me during camp. “Usually when you have an injury, it compounds if you’re not careful. And with my neck surgery I definitely didn’t come into shape [last spring]. I didn’t make any lies about it, but I didn’t come into shape the way I wanted to or the way I usually do, and the throwing program wasn’t the best. It’s just unfortunate, but I think that if I had a better offseason I probably would have been healthy last year.”

It was certainly a nice moment for Parnell yesterday. This hasn’t been easy for him by any means, and he has hit so many bumps in the road in the process. But he persevered.

And now, another test begins.