CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – James Karinchak stepped through the doors from the hallway leading to the Guardians’ clubhouse sporting a fresh tan and a big smile.
“At the end of the day, I’m still waking up and playing baseball,” Karinchak said.
His excitement could hardly be contained. Fresh off being recalled from Triple-A Columbus, the right-hander’s rehab assignment is finally complete.
For the better part of the last several months, Karinchak has been recovering from a shoulder injury suffered during Spring Training. When the club broke North, he stayed put.
“It's obviously not in Cleveland, but I mean, I'm still playing baseball in Arizona, and that's all I ever wanted to do,” Karinchak said.
But now that baseball is being played in Cleveland. Admittedly, Karinchak didn’t anticipate missing this much time. But after 75 games he said his shoulder feels good. So too, does his mind.
“The biggest part is like mentally knowing you can throw a baseball hard again,” Karinchak said. “Obviously, you get hurt when you throw a baseball, that's how I got hurt was throwing a baseball hard.”
Getting over that mental threshold to be able to throw a baseball with command and confidence didn’t come until roughly mid-April for Karinchak. Since the beginning of June, he’s been refining his throwing and focusing on being more consistent in Columbus.
In 12 appearances with the Clippers, Karinchak went 1-0 with a 5.73 ERA, striking out 17 batters in 11 innings.
“I think the last three outings have been really, really good,” said pitching coach Carl Willis. “He has continued to improve and started to show signs of being his old self.”
Karinchak’s “old self” allowed just one run through his first 21 outings in 2021, but struggled over his next 12 appearances before being sent down to Columbus. Whether it’s his fastball or his curveball, he’s ready to uncork either to a major league batter at this point.
“I’m confident in both of them right now. I’m excited to see what I can do,” Karinchak said.
Overcoming a significant injury is never easy, often one of the biggest barriers to overcome for an athlete.
For Karinchak? His shoulder recovery takes a backseat in terms of career-hurdles to surrendering a 432-foot grand slam to Gio Urshela in the 2020 playoffs as a rookie.
With the Yankees trailing 4-1 in the fourth inning, Urshela’s bomb into the empty bleachers thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic put his team in the lead and reverberated louder than any sellout crowd could.
“This one (the shoulder injury) was definitely a setback, I would say mentally, but I say the biggest mental hurdle was definitely coming back after that (homer to Urshela),” Karinchak said.
The Guardians schedule, three double-headers in six days, has put the club in a precarious position of saving arms and managing workloads.
But for Karinchak the situation worked in his favor with the Cleveland pitching staff wearing thin.
He doesn’t care about the circumstances, he’s just ready to throw off the mound in a big-league ballpark again.
“I'm confident my ability right now and we're going to find out soon, right,” he said.
NOTES – The Guardians placed reliever Anthony Gose on the 10-day IL with a strained left triceps.
Pitching coach Carl Willis said Saturday was the first day the team became aware of any issues and the initial prognosis is not believed to be serious. The team should know more in a couple days.
“The hope is it's two or three days and he'll be feel better,” Willis said. “Unfortunately, we have to go the IL route because with the double-headers and the schedule as it is, we can’t go short one day.”
Gose has appeared in 22 games this year and sports a 3-0 record to go along with a 5.57 ERA in 21 innings. He’s allowed 15 hits, 11 earned runs, while giving up four home runs and issuing 11 walks.