In 2019, Drew Smith entered Spring Training hoping to build off a promising 2018 debut to earn a spot in the Opening Day bullpen. He’d pitch in just four Spring Training games before being diagnosed with a torn UCL necessitating Tommy John surgery.
With the typical Tommy John surgery being around 18 months, this mean Smith was going to be away from baseball for a long time. As we have learned that is an emotionally draining time period for a pitcher. Many pitchers have talked about the mental toll it has taken upon them, and Smith was no different.
Smith talked to Justin Toscano of NJ.com about the mental difficulty of the rehab process. Of the rehab, Smith would say, “You’ve got to let it heal and that’s the hardest part, really. Sometimes, you can’t do anything for it. You’ve got to let it rest.”
That means a lot of downtime. That leads to a pitcher just finding things to do. For Smith, it was suddenly becoming an avid reader, and finding an ear or two. Fortunately, Smith had a good support system to help him. He would speak with his father DeWayne Smith, and those conversations helped. The same could be said of his teammates like Steven Matz.
Matz had a more difficult than usual Tommy John rehab when he was a minor leaguer. Matz’s message to Smith was, “You’re going to get through it, it’s normal, you’ve just got to keep your head and trust that you’re going to be back.”
Right now, Smith appears back or close to it. In fact, he told Toscano, “I’m just doing exactly what I did before surgery and letting everything else take care of itself.”
Still, Smith is going through the rehabilitation process, and he’s not quite yet fully there mentally. As he admitted, “It’s natural to have fears and doubts, but you try to keep them in the back of your mind or keep them out.” Fortunately, according to Smith, he is not experiencing those doubts and fears when he is on the mound.
Now, he is a young reliever trying to once again force his way onto the Mets Major League bullpen. We have seen he has the ability to pitch at the Major League level. Chances are, he will have that opportunity sooner or later.
The pitching is going to be the easy part for him. The hard part, dealing with the surgery, idleness, and the wondering he’ll get his stuff back, is almost over.
