July 10: Zimmerman Continues the Long Road to Recovery

The unlikely comeback of former Goldeyes starter Jeff Zimmerman is progressing slowly, but ever so surely, and it’s now reached the point where he has sights set on a return to the big leagues.

Speaking from his home in Arizona, Zimmerman said that while his comeback with the Seattle Mariners is “progressing a lot more slowly than I’d hoped,” it is progressing nonetheless and he hopes to be ready for a return to the Majors sometime next month.

“I finally got into a game, pitching against a team that was wearing a different-coloured uniform,” Zimmerman said. “I went two innings in an Arizona rookie league game the other night and while it wasn’t as good an outing as I’d hoped, it was another step forward.”

In Zimmerman’s first appearance with the Seattle’s Arizona League rookie affiliate, he started and went two complete innings, allowing one run on two hits. He also gave up a walk and struck out two.

It wasn’t a masterpiece, but for a guy who has been out of the game for almost eight years, it was a start.

“I still need a little more velocity on my fastball and a little more bite on the slider, but it was a good first step, finally getting back on the mound to pitch in a real game,” Zimmerman said. “I have no idea what Seattle’s plan is for me and right now I’m not worried about it. I’m still on a roster, the Mariners are still paying me and they haven’t cleaned out my locker yet, so I’ll just go to work every day and keep moving forward.”

Zimmerman, who will turn 37 in August, has spent his entire career battling the odds. But this time, the odds were so long, there were few people in baseball, outside his good friend John Wetteland on the Mariners, who believed he had anything left in the tank.

But the Canadian right-hander that drove from his home in Alberta to Winnipeg in the spring of 1997 just to attend a Goldeyes open tryout, has battled back from crippling arm injuries to get one last shot at the bigs.

Back in 1997, Goldeyes manager Hal Lanier fell in love with Zimmerman’s darting slider and signed him. While he didn’t tear up the Northern League immediately, he did pitch consistently enough to finish 9-2 with a 2.82 earned run average and a club-record 140 strikeouts. With that, he led all pitchers in ERA and won the Northern League Rookie Pitcher of the Year award.

More importantly, he signed a contract with Texas and, by April of 1999, had pitched himself into the big leagues.

With the Rangers, Zimmerman was an instant success. By mid-season, he was 7-1 with a 1.22 ERA and was selected to pitch in the all-star game in Boston. He was so good in his rookie season that he signed a three-year $10 million deal with the Rangers.

But just when it appeared that he was going to be one of the best young closers in the game, his arm gave out. It got so bad in 2001 that he couldn’t throw at all. He had not one, but two Tommy John surgeries. He had two other procedures and three scopes. In total, he had five invasive operations and seven procedures, but by 2005, it was apparent he’d never pitch again.

“I kind of gave up and admitted to myself that it was probably over,” he said this past winter. “So I just kind of went about the business of helping Andrea raise the kids and didn’t think much about it.”

But over the winter, Zimmerman grew tired of “getting in my wife’s way,” so in January he picked up a baseball again, just to see if he could throw it without any pain. What happened next was a shock.

“Right away, I was able to throw a baseball without any discomfort,” he said. “I sometimes find it hard to believe that after all that time, I was completely healthy again. I threw the ball in January and I had no trouble getting it into the high eighties.

“So I called my agent and asked if he could get me a shot with a big league organization. He called back and said he’d set up a tryout with Seattle. Long story short, they offered me a one-year contract.”

For the past four months, Zimmerman has been getting up every day, going to the Mariners compound in Peoria and working out. He lifts weights, does his arm exercises, runs and depending on the day, will throw long toss or off the mound. He’s not back yet but says he’s getting closer.

“The Mariners haven’t put any timeline on what I’m doing,” he said. “The kids have finished school, so my family is moving down here to Arizona. I know I’ll still be here for a while. I hope to be back in the majors in a month. But I know, I’ll be pitching somewhere on a regular basis in August.”