'This is what I missed': Tejay Antone returns after two years spent on the IL
The day before Cincinnati Reds reliever Tejay Antone left for spring training in early February, he sat down for a conversation with his wife at their home and asked her if he should retire.
Antone was rehabbing from his second Tommy John surgery, and then he suffered a setback. His arm ached. He already knew that many pitchers never come back from a second Tommy John surgery, and Antone was considering joining that list of pitchers. Antone told his wife, Kelsi, that they’d be alright.
“I don’t know if I can keep going,” Tejay told Kelsi. “This hurts.”
Kelsi encouraged him to keep going. She also told him to take some of the pressure off of himself.
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“We had to come to terms with being OK with baseball being over, and we did,” Antone said. “Baseball has been a blessing and a great opportunity. At the same time, I had to keep pushing. It relieved some stress. I didn’t have to return. It wasn’t a requirement anymore. I decided that if I make it, awesome. If I don’t, awesome.”
Tejay Antone made it. On Aug. 24, 2021, Antone’s ulnar collateral ligament popped and completely disconnected, requiring him to get Tommy John surgery for the second time. On Friday, over two years later, the Reds activated Antone from the injured list. Antone’s road back to the big leagues was filled with setbacks, but he turned his long recovery into an opportunity to help others.
Antone got his first Tommy John surgery in 2017 when he was a minor leaguer. He remembers being ignored by the Reds’ big league pitchers who were rehabbing in the same facility.
He decided that if he were ever in that position, he’d handle it differently. Five years later, Antone was the big league pitcher at the Reds’ spring training facility going through rehab during the season. He saw it as an opportunity to lead.
“I’m a human the same as everyone else in this room,” Antone said he learned. “I can throw a baseball better than you, but that doesn’t make me a better person than you.”
Antone organized sprint speed competitions and hamstring strength competitions in the weight room with all of the rehabbing players. The winner got $50.
Antone led a mock court on Friday’s where players got fined $1 for mistakes like wearing your hat backwards while warming up. The rehabbing players went out to dinner often at P.F. Chang’s. In July of 2022, Antone took everyone out on a boat for the Fourth of July on a nearby lake.
“He built up chemistry,” said Reds starting pitcher Lyon Richardson, who was a part of that rehab group in 2022. Everyone got along really well. He created an atmosphere between everyone. He really helped me navigate the entire process. He set an example for what should be done. He guided me through the process really well.”
Antone’s leadership also gave him another reason to keep going. In the offseason, he runs a pitching training facility in Texas. Even if he didn’t make it back to the big leagues, he knew he was going through experiences that could help the young pitchers that he works with there.
“There’s so much to learn from how Tejay went about this whole process,” Reds manager David Bell said. “You have a tendency, at least I did, to get self-consumed when you’re going through an injury or tough times. Tejay did such an incredible job of working hard to get back to this point. But throughout the process, he just did so much for others.”
Over the last two years, Antone saw Richardson leave the rehab group, race through the Minor Leagues and make his big league debut. He saw some of the rehabbing players make it back to the minors. He saw some of them suffer career-ending setbacks. Players came and went, but Antone had to stick around.
If he hadn’t strained his flexor in February, then Antone would have been ready for the start of the 2023 season. Because of that setback, Antone wasn’t able to return to the big leagues until September.
He had an injury scare in late May as he rehabbed in Arizona. The pain felt similar to what he experienced in February.
“It was phantom pain,” Antone said. “When you cut through an area twice, there are a lot of nerve endings that are messed up. I just wanted reassurance that what I was feeling in my elbow was normal. I knew then that when I feel that feeling, it’s just inflammation.”
Antone had to build back all of his confidence. He felt more comfortable pitching with a lower arm slot, and he has started throwing his sinker as his primary pitch. Antone threw 100 mph fastballs in 2021 and looked like one of the best relievers in baseball. Now he says he’s more of a true pitcher than a “slinger.”
In late July, Antone left Arizona to start a rehab assignment in Triple-A. Before he left, the head of the cafeteria, Brice, asked Antone what his favorite meal was. Antone said “French Toast,” so Brice made him French Toast and brought balloons as the entire Goodyear complex wished him well.
Antone pitched in 14 games on his rehab assignment, and now the Reds need him to help pick up an injury-riddled and COVID-plagued pitching staff. After learning that he got called up on Friday, he arrived at Great American Ball Park around 9 p.m. on Friday night. He rushed to the bullpen to make himself available to pitch, and he prepared himself to pitch in extra innings during the Reds’ biggest series of the season.
When third baseman Noelvi Marte hit a walk off single against the Chicago Cubs on Friday, Antone sprinted in from the bullpen to celebrate. When he made it to center field, he spun in a circle to look around and take in the moment.
He thought, “This is what I missed.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'This is what I missed': Tejay Antone returns from a two-year recovery
