PHAM OUT TO PROVE HIS WORTH
Outfielder isn’t quite back to 100 percent after being stabbed following last season
Tommy Pham could have lost his life. He very well might have been relegated to a wheelchair, unable to move his legs for the rest of his days.
If he were not so muscular, doctors told him, a stabbing that left a gash several inches long would have penetrated deeper near the base of his spine and would likely have resulted in one of those two outcomes.
Pham recalls being rushed to the hospital late on the night of Oct. 11, speaking with Padres General Manager A.J. Preller and head athletic trainer Mark Rogow on the phone and telling them his career was probably over.
“I thought I wasn’t going to be able to play,” he said Sunday morning.
The man who attacks every waking hour the way a lion stalks a herd of gazelles was on bed rest for a time. Afterward, for about six weeks, he made weekly trips to San Francisco for anti-inflammatory treatments to help speed his recovery.
Yet when asked if his perspective on life has changed, he at first answered, “No. I still look at everything almost the same.”
The real answer, upon elaboration and as it seems could be the only answer Pham is capable of, is that he will live even more fully, according to his definition of
“I had a terrible year. … Plus, this is my free agent year as well. So I feel like I have the most to prove.” Tommy Pham • On first season with Padres
what that is.
“If anything, I probably will just spend more money and stop saving as much,” Pham said. “Because if I die, I would feel like I had too much money in the bank and I didn’t live enough.”
On the baseball field, what that means for the Padres could essentially be summed up with the assessment that Pham will be fine.
“He’s special,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said. “He’s so competitive in everything he does. Whether it’s a tee drill or a soft toss drill, a machine challenge drill that, quite frankly we set up some drills where they’re not supposed to succeed, he’s always looking to improve. He’s always working to improve. Even on the days that he won’t tell you that it
was as good as it can be, he’s at 100 percent, he’s going back looking at video, looking at the iPad. He’s finding f laws in maybe one swing out of 90 that he took that day. He’s just that type of guy, and that’s pretty unique.”
For example, in an atmosphere that is fairly relaxed and generally involves a fair amount of joking among players, Pham is virtually always scowling during spring training. Especially in live batting practice, he appears to be transported to the middle of a pennant race. Sunday, after striking out late in one session, Pham walked to the dugout, threw his helmet down and let loose a series of expletives.
Pham estimated he is at 80 percent physically. That seemed to indicate an overall state.
He is coming off two hand surgeries and the surgery he had following the October stabbing incident outside a strip club. Additionally, his right (throwing) elbow has its good and bad days. He spent the winter before last season rehabbing a torn UCL.
He said his top speed on his treadmill at home is 25 mph. He reached 24.3 mph before he left for spring training.
“From a strength, rotational standpoint, when we test, my numbers are pretty high compared to everyone else,” he said. “The only thing I’m really lacking is squatting and dead lifting. My norms aren’t there. You don’t have to squat a lot or dead lift a lot to be a good baseball player.
“From a running standpoint … I’m not too far off from my best. Just physically, I can’t squat a lot or dead lift a lot. My back is just not ready. My swing, rotation and all that is fine. I’ve been hitting for a long time, actually. I’ve been throwing, hitting, doing all my baseball stuff for a couple months. Just physically, from the lower body standpoint, I’m not there.”
There is no doubt Pham is tough.
He played much of last season in pain. He had a hamate surgery on his left hand in mid-August and returned after a month of rehabilitation. When the hand still didn’t feel right, Pham went in for another surgery, this time to fix a cartilage issue in his left wrist (TFCC) in October.
Between those two procedures, he played baseball.
He returned for eight games at the end of the regular season and got a hit in six of those even as he was essentially just trying to get his rhythm back. He then hit .375 (9-for-24) with two doubles in six postseason games.
He has always seemed to play angry. More so now, evidently, after a dismal performance in 2020.
“I probably have the most to prove,” said Pham, who will make $8.9 million this season. “I had a terrible year. … Plus, this is my free agent year as well. So I feel like I have the most to prove.”
His first season with the Padres was his worst in the majors. He hit .211 with a .312 on-base percentage and .624 OPS.
It was a particularly steep drop from what he had done the previous three seasons, when he ranked 16th in the majors in OBP (.381) and 26th in OPS (.856). He was one of four players, along with three-time American League MVP Mike Trout, 2018 NL MVP Christian Yelich and 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts, to have at least a .380 on-base percentage and 50 stolen bases from 2017-19.
Pham is a student of the analytics used to measure a player’s production. He referred to a drop in his weighted runs created-plus, a metric that takes runs created and standardizes it across the league. A WRCplus of 100 is considered an average MLB player. After averaging a 134 WRC-plus over the previous three seasons, Pham’s WRC-plus was 78 in ’20. He also lamented his minus-1 defensive runs saved in left field, a drop from 2 in 2019, equivalent to his 2018 total and down 12 from 2017.
“I know I’m not a 78 WRC hitter, and I know I’m not a negative defensive player,” he said. “I know what I’m capable of bringing to the table. With my speed and my athleticism, I know I’m capable of being an above average elite player in this game.”