Elbow issues wearing on Tepera
There was always something off about Ryan Tepera this season.
The hints were there. His velocity was down a couple of ticks across the board, particularly evident in his fastball. He struggled to develop a consistent delivery, evident by a 6.55 ERA. He knew it, too.
It all seemed to come to a head in an inning-long appearance against the Boston Red Sox on Monday when Tepera gave up two solo homers to Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers in a three-hit, one-walk appearance.
But to Tepera, who said he never felt “100 per cent back” after missing part of spring training and the first three weeks of the season because of right elbow soreness, Monday was just a tipping point. He considered speaking up about not feeling right after an outing against the San Francisco Giants last Wednesday, but held off. By Monday, there was no staying quiet.
“I’ve been battling this for last two, three weeks,” Tepera said Tuesday, after the Jays placed him back on the injured list because of right elbow impingement. “It’s something that I go to sleep at night thinking about and I wake up in the morning thinking about.
“It’s not me. I think everyone can see that, that it’s just not coming out right and I’m not myself and it’s tough to go and get big league hitters when I’m not myself.”
This is the third time in less than a year that Tepera has been sidelined with elbow issues; he also missed more than a month in 2018 when he was placed on the injured list with right elbow inflammation.
“I think that I’ve exhausted all the options,” Tepera said. “Looking back at last year when I went on the (injured list), I did what I needed to do, I recovered and got treatment in the off-season, I came into spring training and had a setback, I got a cortisone injection ... At times it felt all right right after the cortisone and I was able to throw and felt great but it’s just been kind of a lingering thing.”
Since Tepera was activated from his spring setback he has found the pain in his elbow tolerable, but struggled with his stuff. After San Francisco, his shoulder started to feel off, too.
“I could be compensating because of the elbow, who knows,” Tepera said. “There’s a lot of stuff going on. I’m trying to get that (velocity) back so I’m overthrowing and I’m using parts of my body that I normally don’t have to. I can’t point it at one single outing but I think after (Monday) night, it’s time.”
Tepera hopes to visit with orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Altchek, who administered the cortisone shot earlier this year, in New York on Thursday to get a better understanding of what is next.
He knows he has bone spurs in his elbow — an issue he has previously dealt with that required surgery to correct back in college. There is no plan in place for Tepera past Thursday, but he is preparing himself for the possibility of going under the knife.
“Hopefully, it’s something you go in and clean it out and it’s a six-to-eight-week thing,” Tepera said. “That’s kind of where my mindset is right now, but who knows.”
General manager Ross Atkins said Tuesday he hopes Tepera’s injury is not a long-term issue but would wait for a diagnosis from a medical professional. Manager Charlie Montoyo suggested Tepera’s situation could be similar to that of Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi, who had elbow surgery to remove a “loose body” in his right elbow on April 23. Eovaldi is back throwing less than a month later: he tossed a 35-pitch bullpen session on Tuesday, according to Boston manager Alex Cora. The recovery time slated for Eovaldi at the time of his surgery was six weeks.
For Tepera, shutting himself down is a step he believes he has to take to get himself right longterm. Making the decision to stop trying to work through the impingement was a tough one, but also a relief.
“I’m tired of dealing with it. I’m frustrated,” Tepera said. “I think there’s plenty of time left in the season to get something done now. I’d rather do it sooner than later and be back at the end of the season. That’s the best-case scenario and that’s what I’m hoping for.”