GIANTS PLAYER LOOKING FOR COMEBACK
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Tyson Ross knew there was something wrong. But five months had passed, and he still didn’t know what the problem was.
Ross, who had signed a oneyear contract in Detroit before last season, was making what would be his seventh and final start for the Tigers in 2019. He had given up five runs and recorded just four outs in his previous outing, and followed that up with six runs over five innings against the Twins in this early May start.
The problem? He couldn’t feel his right hand.
“It was like pitching with an arm that’s asleep,” Ross recounted inside the Giants clubhouse this February. “It was terrible. I was bouncing heaters. I was all over the place.”
Ross, a graduate of Bishop O’Dowd and Cal, signed a minor-league deal with an invitation to big league camp with the Giants. The hope is to rebound to his level of success in 2018, when he posted a 4.15 ERA in 149 2/3 innings between the Padres and Cardinals, and compete for a spot in the starting rotation, a vacancy made even larger by Tyler Beede’s elbow problems this spring.
It’s not as outlandish as it might sound for a 32 year old coming off the worst season of his career — if seven starts classifies as a season.
Before 2019, Ross underwent surgery to treat thoracic outlet syndrome, a common ailment for MLB pitchers that occurs when the muscles around the nerves in the shoulder grow too large and begin to pinch the nerves. The resulting complications cost him his 2019 season — and led to the two atrocious outings before he was shut down.
For months, the Tigers medical staff struggled to diagnose was wrong with Ross’ arm. They performed an MRI and found nothing. Eventually, he was placed on the 60-day injured list with ulnar neuritis in his elbow.
He didn’t pitch again, and eventually the season came to an end. Ross was again a free agent, free to seek out his own doctors. That led him to Dr. Matthew Cook, an anesthesiologist by trade based in the South Bay.
“I talked to like 15 doctors before I treated him,” Cook told the Bay Area News Group. “Just because when there’s somebody like him, there’s like 15 different medical opinions weighing in on it.”
Rather than an MRI, which provides still images, Cook performed an ultrasound and was able to see the muscles and surrounding tissue in multiple positions. What he saw was “a whole bunch” of “very sickened” scar tissue created by the original procedure. Essentially, the nerves in his throwing
shoulder were being severely pinched, even worse than before the surgery, by the dead tissue.
The surgery to treat thoracic outlet syndrome, which Ross underwent before the 2019 season, is invasive and requires the removal of the first rib bone. The idea is to create more space around the nerve, but “there’s a whole bunch of muscles that attach to that first rib, so it’s not a walk in the park taking that out,” Cook said.
“It’s pretty common for people to have a rocky experience with that surgery.”
Rocky is the least you could say of Ross’ experience.
“It was a crazy scenario where I spent five months getting my body in a good position to heal,” Ross said. “But until I got those nerves taken care of, nothing really changed.”
Ross compared his search for a doctor who could diagnose it a “wild goose chase.” Eventually, he visited a doctor who had been trained by Cook in one, specific procedure he thought could help. So he referred him to the master.
Ross visited Cook’s office in Campbell, and after two treatments — and no surgery — he was fully recovered. He said he’s feeling better and throwing faster now than he was last spring, even before the complications arose.
The procedure is called hydrodissection, in which Cook inserts a needle near the nerve and breaks up the scar tissue with fluid, rather than going under the knife and resectioning rib bones.
Cook spent 15 years injecting local anesthetic for shoulder surgeries, including one season performing injections for the Washington Nationals. This, he says, is the same process. But instead of a numbing agent, it’s simply a saline solution.
“I think in the future this is going to be the standard of care,” Cook said.
He’s performed the procedure on pitchers who have been able to throw on the same day. At most, it’s a two-week recovery process to get back to full strength. Eventually, he hypothesized, this could be the first option to treat thoracic outlet syndrome — with the complicated surgery as a fallback option.
If any complications were to arise, Ross is thankful to have Cook in his backyard. But Cook said any complications would make themselves known within 24 hours of the procedure. He might need one more treatment, Cook said, but nothing comparable to what he’s already experienced.
The biggest factor for Ross’ return to the Bay was family. The last time he pitched for a hometown team, Ross was a highly touted young pitching prospect. Now he’s 32 and married. He and his wife, Ashley, just had their first son, Jordan, last year.
Whether Ross makes the 26man roster or is assigned to Sacramento, it was important for him to be back home, where Jordan can grow up around his grandparents.
He’s feeling good, pitching well and exactly where he wants to be.
“It was just like a perfect scenario for me,” he said.