Post-TJ surgery, Brash 'super excited' with rehab progress

SEATTLE -- Rehab from Tommy John surgery can be a long and lonely process, but Matt Brash has been all smiles since meeting the Mariners on their nine-game homestand, three months removed from undergoing the season-ending elbow procedure.

With a throwing program on the horizon, Brash is in town, mostly for a reprieve from rehab and to connect with his teammates.

"I'm super excited being here,” Brash said before Tuesday's game against Detroit. “It's just a boost seeing the guys and seeing all my friends and getting to watch the game. ... It’s nice like knowing that when I go back to Arizona, I'm going to be throwing and all that, so I’ll be excited to go back and do that.”

Indeed, Brash said that he’ll begin playing catch next week when he returns to Arizona in what will be a very light and closely monitored process, working alongside Jason Roberts, the Mariners’ coordinator of rehab and return to play. Brash has already begun one-handed pitch-and-catch plyometric exercises on a trampoline.

"It's been a pretty quick recovery for me and it's felt good, and I'm getting excited,” Brash said.

The timeline for the flamethrowing righty to return to big league action is next June, which would represent a little over a 12-month recovery post-operation -- much faster than the typical range of 14-18 months for Tommy John surgery. The accelerated timeline is due to Brash receiving the internal brace procedure, which has been an alternative for athletes who haven’t completely torn their UCL. The brace is designed to reduce inflammation and protect healing tissue.

"I didn't know until going into the surgery ... when I woke up I didn't know if I was getting the brace or the full thing, or what,” Brash said. "So when I found out it was the brace, I was pretty excited because I knew it was a fast recovery.”

The process from when Brash was first shut down due to elbow inflammation in the early stages of Spring Training to the surgery itself spanned three months, in large part because he said that he didn’t suffer a complete tear.

"It's not like I blew out and I had to get the surgery no matter what,” Brash said, “because then obviously I would have been like, 'OK, I'll get the surgery next week.' It was just very minor basic fraying on my UCL ligament, and guys have thrown with that in the past. So I was like, 'I'm going to give this a shot and try to pitch this year, and if it doesn't work I can still get the surgery with enough time where I don't miss next year.'”

Brash, who said that he first experienced pain akin to “golfer’s elbow” when throwing bullpen sessions before Spring Training, ramped back up in March after a consultation with renowned orthopedist Dr. Keith Meister. Then, the day before he was scheduled to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma, he experienced more discomfort and was shut down altogether.

"It was taking me a week to get back,” Brash said. "I could get there and get my velo, but it was taking too long, and then I started to feel a little discomfort on some sliders and stuff. So at that point I knew when it wasn't feeling well and in catch play, I was like, 'I need to get this fixed.'

"It was tough mentally, but I'm glad I did what I did. I could've gotten the surgery right away, but I gave it a shot, and in my mind, I gave it the best chance I had at playing this year.”

Brash, who led MLB relievers with 78 appearances last season, over which he carried a 3.08 ERA, has been recovering in Arizona ever since, leaning on other players going through season-ending injuries such as Sam Haggerty and Jackson Kowar. He’s also been following the first-place Mariners just about every night, admittedly experiencing “what-if” moments when seeing pockets he’d be used.

"I do my rehab in the morning,” Brash said, “so I go home and it's kind of what I look forward to -- watching the guys play."