Fans are wondering, with bated breath and biting nails, if Jacob Lopez is fully healthy after his season-ending stint on the IL due to the dreaded “forearm tightness.” It turns out the fans weren’t the only ones blowing the bricks out of the vents.
I met with Lopez on Monday, March 16 for what turned out to be an abbreviated interview because after 5 minutes I could see him looking at the field anxiously even though he never said he had to go. Obviously he did, and so I kept the interview shorter than usual – but I was still able to touch on the key topics that had made him one of my targets this spring.
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Nicholas: So first of all, you just had a great outing on Saturday. You’ve been through injuries and rehab sessions before, and then you had a scare late last year, or maybe more than a scare, because you were on the IL. But can you first talk a little about what happened at the end of last year, how you felt, how you felt compared to what you experienced before (TJS)?
Lopez: Yeah, it was pretty scary that day in Seattle, because I felt a little bit of tension in the bullpen, but I didn’t think much about it because you know, later in the year you feel a lot of things. But I think once I started taking care of my arms after I got out, I really exploded and I was like, “Oh no, this is worse than when I had TJ” and it was, it was in this scary place, you know? So, I was just thinking the worst things, but luckily it ended up looking like some kind of soft tissue where my ulnar nerve was before they moved it in 2021. So it ended up being something that could heal on its own. So that’s what I did this offseason and I feel pretty good about it.
Nicholas: I feel like pitchers have this constantly difficult decision to make where they feel something – they feel pain, they feel tension, they feel something that feels like pain or that reminds them of a serious injury. And then they have to decide: Am I still going to throw? Do I say something? What should I do? So can you walk us through that experience as a pitcher trying to figure out what to do with something?
Lopez: Yes, I think once I went through the TJ process, I really learned what real pain is and what you can kind of toughen up and overcome. So for me personally, there were probably only three or four starts last year where I felt 100%, probably from June to July, the whole time, I don’t know, I had upper back issues that wouldn’t go away. And I think the adrenaline helps take over, but in between starts you’re like, “Okay, what can we do every day in the training room and in the weight room to really figure it out and get back out there in five days?” So I think that’s the most important thing for the starting pitcher.
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Nicholas: Now, this outing in Seattle, the fans are watching you, and you’ve had a really good year. And obviously, you’re having a difficult time. How do you feel on the mound? Do you think you should have gone?
Lopez: Yes, there is no doubt about it. If you tell coaches you are good, you must be fully confident. And it’s one of those things like, I can’t stop in the middle of the first inning or something and leave the rest of my team out to dry. So no, when I’m outside, I don’t think about anything. I just believe in having full confidence and competing the best I can.
Nicholas: There was a moment early Saturday when you threw a pitch, you thought it was a strike. It was called a ball and you challenged and I saw you walk to the back of the mound and the way you got into it and you kind of let out a grunt, I thought “Oh no, he’s hurt,” you know, but it was all over a ball strike call and it was a third strike so it seems to me that even in a spring training game the competitive juices are really flowing.
Lopez: Oh, no, I mean, yeah, I’m just a really competitive guy. I mean, when I was younger I was a lot more emotional, so I hope it doesn’t show too much. That challenge from Shea got the strikeout, so that was huge. I think it’s pretty fun. I loved it in AAA, ABS, so it just helps keep the game smooth. But yeah, I’m an emotional guy, so I try to be as professional as possible. You know, my first live ABs this spring training, to Fitch in the backfield, felt the same as my MLB debut. So I guess that’s a good thing. I get a bunch of butterflies, so I’ve just learned to control them.
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Nicholas: So I guess the question that’s probably on every fan’s mind right now is how you feel physically and where you are in terms of injuries and health right now.
Lopez: Yeah, I feel 100% and I’ve felt like this all offseason. So yeah, I really feel confident to help this team. We have some pretty high goals and we’re going to do our best as a team to achieve those goals.
Nicholas: Now you have an unusual move. You know, you have a very misleading delivery. {Here Jacob starts to look nervous and continues to survey the field} Can you just talk it out and then I’ll let you go. How did you develop this?
Lopez: I just, that’s how I’ve always pitched. It was worse in college and all that, and then my pitching coach in college is really the first person to really help control that. But no, I never really worked, even in professional ball with pitching coaches, too much with my mechanics. Which was a good thing to be as natural as possible.
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And with that, Lopez, who was apparently supposed to take the field with a pregame huddle, exhaled and sprinted toward the infield even faster than his best fastball.
Next: Pitching coach Scott Emerson discusses the “kicking change,” Jack Perkins’ role, and what he thinks of Trainman (well, maybe just 2 of those 3)…
