Sykora crushed it in '24. Watch what happens when he's healthy
Nats' No. 2 prospect had minor hip surgery in offseason and is already seeing it pay off in '25
Jessica Camerato
@jessicacameratoWEST PALM BEACH, Fla. ¨C The final stats tell of a successful first full season in the pros for 20-year-old right-hander Travis Sykora: a 5-3 record, 2.33 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 13.7 strikeout rate and Carolina League Pitcher of the Year honors.
Yet during those 20 starts with the Single-A Fredericksburg Nationals, Sykora was pitching with hip discomfort. Sykora, ranked as the Nats¡¯ No. 2 prospect and baseball¡¯s No. 70 overall per MLB Pipeline, underwent a minor labrum procedure in his hip this offseason.
¡°Getting my hip fixed and movement patterns cleaned up, it's already paid off more than as if I just worked super hard throughout it,¡± Sykora said Wednesday prior to the Nationals¡¯ 3-0 loss to the Astros at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches.
Sykora estimates he hadn¡¯t been able to utilize his hip ¡°the right way¡± for a few years. Not realizing it was an injury, he found ways to work around it.
¡°I utilize a lot of internal rotation on my back hip,¡± Sykora explained. ¡°So when I¡¯d get into that internal rotation, I would feel a little bit of a pinch. What I did is, I just started bowing out my back leg into external rotation ¨C which is the opposite direction ¨C and kind of just pushed off the mound instead of rotating off the mound. So that's kind of why my velocity was down a little bit.¡±
Sykora, a 2023 third-round Draft pick out of Round Rock (Texas) High School, was able to spend more time with his family than he had in recent years as a result of the offseason procedure. His mother accompanied him on the 10-day trip to Vail, Colo., for the procedure, and she took care of him there post-op; his father helped him on a daily basis with the CPM machine he slept with. Back home, Sykora and his brother fished and went baseball card shopping.
¡°It was nice because I got to spend more time with my family than I ever have,¡± Sykora said. ¡°... We were a really close family, but we got even closer. So it was a great offseason in every aspect.¡±
Sykora followed a rehab schedule of physical therapy exercises three times a day. He has been throwing for the past three months. Sykora has built up to 200-250 feet of long toss, with a target of 300 feet. The plan is to throw off the half mound next week and off the mound the following week.
¡°Before surgery, when I was dealing with the hip, it was a lot of joint mobilizations and working on my hip to get it to feel somewhat decent,¡± Sykora said. ¡°But now my warmups, my stretching, it's gone down about 50 percent, so it's a lot easier to get it done throughout the day ¨C and especially throughout the long season.¡±
Sykora¡¯s goal this season is to win the 2025 Minor League Pitcher of the Year Award. He was a runner-up last year to Cardinals southpaw Quinn Mathews. The heat-throwing Sykora is aiming to limit noncompetitive pitches as he maneuvers his velocities. His fastball can reach triple digits (it averages around 95-98 mph), and his splitter is in the mid-80s.
¡°It's kind of like a blessing in disguise, because throwing 100 [mph], you can rely on just trying to blow it by everyone on every pitch,¡± Sykora said. ¡°So it forced me to learn how to pitch like a true pitcher, at lower velocities. Like I said, it's a blessing in disguise because now I can combine what I learned from a pitchability standpoint with my old velocity. I think that's going to be a separator.¡±
General manager Mike Rizzo previously said Sykora would have been part of Major League camp this year if not for the injury.
¡°He¡¯s a guy that we¡¯re counting on that can help us in the long haul,¡± said manager Dave Martinez.