Year after broken jaw, no flinch for Rangers’ Calhoun
Outfielder says he is feeling ‘completely normal again’
Willie Calhoun knew he was comfortable facing left-handed pitchers again after fouling off a curveball in the spring training opener.
The Texas Rangers outfielder didn’t flinch or bail out of the batter’s box. There were no flashbacks to last March, when he remembers waking up in the hospital, but not the exact moment during a spring training game when a fastball hit the left-handed hitter in the face and broke his jaw.
“I was like, OK, I actually feel good now,” Calhoun said Thursday. “I think that curveball kind of got me back in there because it looked like it was going to hit me, but I was able to stay through it . ... I hit it on the barrel, it was just foul.”
After drawing a walk in the first inning Thursday against San Diego’s MacKenzie Gore, Calhoun has faced left-handers in all three of his games this spring. He has a single and two walks in four such plate appearances.
It was a year ago next Monday that Dodgers lefthander Julio Urías, his former minor league teammate, threw the pitch that hit Calhoun. (Los Angeles drafted Calhoun in 2015, two years before trading him as part of a deadline deal to acquire Yu Darvish from the Rangers.) After being airlifted to a hospital, Calhoun had a plate surgically inserted the following day to stabilize his jaw.
That was only days before MLB spring training was shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic and pushed the start of the season to late July. Calhoun didn’t miss any regular-season games because of the jaw, but didn’t play in the opener because of a hip strain and later missed a month with a left hamstring strain. He played only 29 games in the shortened 60-game season, and hit .190 in 100 at-bats. While Calhoun had a .368 average versus left-handers, that was in only 19 at-bats (seven hits). And he never felt comfortable at the plate in those situations like he has already this spring.
“I feel completely normal again,” he said. “Last year, I would bail out on offspeed pitches, I would be really jumpy, I wouldn’t really stay in there . ... I’m not really having that thought in the back of my head anymore. So it’s encouraging for me to feel that way.”
Rangers slugger Joey Gallo described Calhoun as “just smiling” and happy when he arrived at the house they are sharing in Arizona this spring. After his injury-shortened AllStar season in 2019, Gallo hit .181 with 10 homers in 57 games last year. He said the roommates are motivating each other and holding each other accountable to keep positive mindsets.