Burdi’s biggest burden
Reliever looks for healthy year after scary injury last season.
One minute, Nick Burdi was throwing a 96.7 mph fastball to Arizona’s Jarrod Dyson. Before the pitch reached the glove of catcher Elias Diaz, the Pirates reliever was writhing in pain on the mound.
“It felt like my bicep and forearm area almost snapped. I had a deep throbbing pain after,” Burdi said recently at this year’s PiratesFest.
“I think that’s why everyone was concerned. We went back, and there was no fracture in the humerus bone. But two days later, when I had no feeling in my pinky or ring fingers, we knew something was going on.”
That horrific injury occurred April 22, and Burdi had surgery June 25 to relieve symptoms of neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome. The reliever mince words as to why he felt the season-ending injury was inevitable.
“It first happened with the ]Minnesota] Twins in 2016. The doctors in Minnesota diagnosed it as a bone bruise,” Burdi said. “And not to out anybody, but they were wrong when they misdiagnosed it.
“We saw Dr. [Keith] Meister. He said it was probably neurogenic TOS. We took the six weeks, and we went on to see if we could rehab it.”
Unfortunately, Burdi couldn’t avoid surgery.
“Every time I went to throw, I could feel a sharp and shooting pain down my arm,” Burdi said. “We got the surgery done. They took out two scaling muscles, a first rib, and they did a minor pec release. We got all of that done.”
It took a little more than a week after the surgery to notice a dramatic difference.
“I’d say six or seven days after the surgery, all of the symptoms had vanished. It was something that had been there over the years,” Burdi said. “It kept accumulating and building more and more stress. But, yeah, it’s all fixed, and I’m ready to move on.”
Burdi was part of a group of pitchers who threw a bullpen session at Pitt’s baseball facility this winter. He would’ve felt at least a little tired after the 30-pitch session before the surgery. Instead, he felt stronger toward the end. “I feel more confident that I can throw back-to-back days or three out of four now,” he said. “I feel more confident in my ability to be consistent.”
Burdi has struggled with various injuries in his baseball career. The capacity to keep fighting has gotten tested more often than Burdi would like. But adversity gives him a unique perspective.
“I would say the Tommy John part of it was much more difficult than this,” said Burdi, who had Tommy John surgery in 2017.
“There’s no graph. No ligament needs to take place and take hold. This was removing stuff to open a pathway for nerves, blood.
“So this was a lot easier of a transition, and I’ve seen the velocity come back quicker. The breaking ball was a lot easier to get used to. So it hasn’t been as difficult as it was through the TJ process.”
Burdi appeared in 11 games last season, with 17 strikeouts in 8⅔ innings. A full season of him being healthy could be a boost for the Pirates, who struggled with their bullpen in 2019. But before Burdi gets there, he’ll have to get through spring training.
“It’s been a frustrating couple of years. So, for me, the biggest goal is to stay on the field for a whole season,” Burdi said. “And I think that starts in the training room and the weight room, nutrition and then obviously going out there and performing . ... It’s one of those things that just, at this point, kind of needs to get done.
“A full season needs to get under my belt.”