Chatwood eyeing his own redemption story
BRADENTON, Fla. — Tyler Chatwood has pitched in 229 MLB games, starting 143 of them, during a 10-year career that has included stints with the Angels, Rockies, Cubs, Blue Jays and Giants.
Should Chatwood use spring training to earn his way back to the big leagues, here’s guessing that next appearance will feel different than the last one. It’s absolutely been a journey for the 33-year-old native of Redlands, Calif.
Not only has Chatwood’s recent path included offseason shoulder surgery — a procedure that has him pitching painfree for the first time in five years — but there’s also a trip to Japan and nearly losing his mom, Lisa, to a severe case of COVID-19 pneumonia, resulting in a double-lung transplant.
After getting sick in September 2021, Chatwood said his mom spent the next four months on life support. Instead of an offseason throwing program, Chatwood, his brother and dad moved their families to San Diego, renting a pair of houses so they could be closer to Lisa. Long days were spent holed up at the hospital.
“They told us she wasn’t gonna make it,” Tyler said. “We fought. Ended up getting the transplant. Baseball wasn’t even on my mind. My mom was. We were fortunate.”
Now, Chatwood is hoping that a clean bill of health — for him and his mom — can translate into major league work, whether that’s directly out of spring training or positioning himself as a midseason callup.
Chatwood hasn’t started games regularly since 2018 when he was with the Cubs, but he does have ample experience. When looking at service time among players the Pirates have in camp, only Rich Hill, Carlos Santana and Andrew McCutchen have more.
The best recent work for Chatwood came in 2019, when he had a 3.76 ERA in 38 games (five starts) with Chicago, walking 37 and striking out 74 in 76 2/3 innings.
Given the starting rotations in both Pittsburgh and Triple-A Indianapolis, Chatwood will probably be a multi-inning reliever.
In 2021, Chatwood’s sinker averaged 95.5 mph, while he also throws a cutter, four-seamer, curveball and changeup.
“Things have gone really well,” Chatwood said of his time with the Pirates so far after signing a minor league deal in December 2022. “It’s been fun to get back in the swing of things. There are a lot of great arms in here to watch. I’m enjoying working with [ pitching coach] Oscar [Marin] and the rest of the pitching staff, as well.”
How Chatwood got connected with the Pirates is an interesting story by itself.
Pirates director of coaching and player development John Baker was working with the Cubs on the mental skill side when Chatwood pitched in Chicago.
That led to a recommendation and Chatwood auditioning for Marin this past offseason at Arizona State.
Chatwood insisted he had other offers but chose the Pirates because of the relationship that he developed with Marin, who watched Chatwood pitch several more times over the offseason, including with Colin Holderman at Driveline in Scottsdale, Ariz.
One thing that resonated for Chatwood was what Marin has done with veteran starters such as Tyler Anderson and Jose Quintana, helping them get their careers back on track the past two seasons.
“The communication we had and what we talked about, I really enjoyed it,” Chatwood said. “I wanted to be here. I wanted to work with Oscar. I like his history of getting guys back on track. I’m excited to work with him.”
How the conversations with Marin were different involved analytics, Chatwood said.
He’s never paid a ton of attention to that stuff, but Marin broke it down and explained it in such a way that it was understandable, that Chatwood learned stuff he could actually apply.
“He knows how to amplify your strengths,” Chatwood said. “He also understands you as a person. Those things were big for me.”
Not as big as eliminating the throbbing pain in his right arm, something Chatwood said he had been experiencing at various points for the past five seasons.
The beginning of the year was never too bad. Chatwood learned how to cope. But eventually the grind of a baseball season took its toll, and Chatwood would inevitably see his results wane.
After refusing to pick up a baseball during Lisa’s illness, Chatwood signed with the Fukuoka SoftBank Haws of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, believing the rest might’ve actually helped and he could push through the arm pain.
Not quite. Chatwood pitched in just two games and actually made a trip back to the United States in between stints in Japan to see a doctor. Nothing worked. The pain persisted.
The pitcher doesn’t blame his months of inactivity for the arm issues. Although the surgical procedure didn’t involve reattaching ligaments or anything crazy, there was plenty of residual damage. Around six weeks later, Chatwood started to throw again.
“I feel great,” Chatwood said. “Baseball is finally fun again.”
Meanwhile, Lisa Chatwood has also enjoyed a full recovery for her double-lung transplant. She’s healthy and keeps talking about making a trip to Bradenton to see Tyler pitch for his new team.
“She keeps telling me she’s gonna fly out, but we’ll see,” Chatwood said. “We have to kind of keep her in a bubble still. We’ll see what happens. We’re just glad she’s healthy.”