Will Michael King pitch again this season?
Three weeks later, with his rehab program hinging on continued fact-finding, strengthening his shoulder and trying to get his long, thoracic nerve to fire at an appropriate level again, the Padres’ 30-year-old right-hander’s faith remains unshaken.
“No, I would still laugh at that question,” King said as affably as only he can after Friday’s 6-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals. “Everybody says with nerves, it’s just a time thing. I’m doing everything I possibly can to get it going. And I know that everybody tells me that it will come back quickly, and I’m just in that lull right now where I’m just trying to keep the body going and be ready to go as soon as I can.”
By everybody, he means everybody.
While he’ll keep the precise locales he’s visited between him, the team and his “Delta miles” program, leaving no stone unturned has taken King “from coast to coast” in search of a path back after sleeping wrong on his shoulder before a May 24 start in Atlanta landed him on the injured list without warning.
It’s a curious injury because it’s almost unheard of in baseball, Padres manager Mike Shildt has said. What King and physical therapist Scott Hacker have discovered is that athletes affected by some kind of irritation to the neve in question participate in overhand sports like softball, volleyball, tennis and swimming — all different than the strength that King is trying regain as pitcher. The closest baseball comp that the Padres have found is the musculocutaneous nerve that Parker Meadows and the Tigers have been trying get to fire since he was sidelined in spring training.
Comparing notes with the Tigers is even more reason for King’s faith in a return this season, he said.
“The Tigers PT was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s night and day,’” King said. “Like he’s so much more advanced than where Parker was at this stage, which gives me confidence.”
That doesn’t mean the waiting game between the physical therapy sessions has been easy. King is not on a throwing progression, but he’s periodically making 30 throws from 60 feet to keep the arm moving.
He has good days and bad.
While the Padres have acknowledged that King’s injury will keep him out through at least the All-Star break, King is confident that more good days will stack before too long.
“I’ve had days where I’ve been really, really frustrated with it and been really sore and felt like I didn’t get much activity that day, King said. “And then I’ll wake up the next day and all of a sudden like, Oh my God, I feel like I can pitch in a game right now. So it’s taking it step by step and knowing that it can fire when it fires, but obviously it’s that annoying process. I’ve got a ton of confidence that what we’re doing is the correct thing to do, and I’ve felt my body progress in great ways.
“So I’m very confident that I will pitch by the end of the year.”
