This story was excerpted from Thomas Harding’s Rockies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BROOMFIELD, Colo. — A youth pitcher spent his Sunday afternoon bullpen session searching for location and mechanics. Between softly rendered instructions, Rockies left-handed reliever Lucas Gilbreath delighted in telling stories of the same thing happening in Major League games.
And either today or tomorrow, Gilbreath will be in the same position as his young pupil — on the mound, dealing with the ups and downs of practicing and tinkering with a baseball season fast approaching. A little more than four months after a left elbow injury ended a promising 2022 season, Gilbreath will begin throwing bullpens in preparation for ’23.
Gilbreath’s 4.19 ERA in 47 appearances comes with an asterisk. His season started late because of a bout with COVID-19. He had a 16.20 ERA through four appearances before being optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque. But from his May 10 return through Aug. 4, his ERA was 2.12. The elbow became a problem, his performance dipped and he and the Rockies agreed to PRP (platelet-rich plasma) treatment in early September.
Gilbreath would like to be ready for Opening Day, but the real aim is to be healthy enough to build on his solid first two Major League seasons and contribute to a quietly revamped Rockies bullpen.
“I haven’t had any arm pain issues and I’ll be ready to go for spring,” Gilbreath said. “I’m about two weeks behind where I would have been last year. I was looking at the calendar and it’s almost exactly two weeks. It’s been hard for me mentally because I like to throw, and I want to be out there, but being two weeks behind is way better than missing some of the season.”
Gilbreath was a starter until 2020, when the Rockies converted him to relief during instructional ball, then they fed him 47 appearances in ’21 as he bounced between Colorado and Albuquerque. He was feeling his best in ’21, before the ligament injury, which fortunately didn’t require surgery.
“I finally got to a point where my fastball command was where it needed to be, my velo was ticking back up, my breaking ball was generating swings and misses, and bad contact,” Gilbreath said. “I had a feel for everything up until my arm started bugging me.”
As he tries to regain his feel, Gilbreath is helping less-experienced pitchers find their form at VTool Elite Training,…
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