McCay returns to the mound
BROOKINGS - What do you remember about May 23, 2019?
That it was hot and sunny in Brookings? That school was almost out for the year? Not much of anything? Maybe all memories pre-March 2020 have been erased from your mind.
Nic McCay remembers May 23, 2019. He was in Tulsa, Oklahoma pitching for the Jackrabbits in in the Summit League Baseball Tournament. McCay pitched 1.2 innings, giving up 4 hits and 4 runs to Western Illinois in a 9-5 Jackrabbit win. It was McCay’s last official start in a SDSU uniform. Until last Friday.
“I know that as a prospect I know what he is good at and all of those things but to me the story with Nic is just what a positive, uplifting guy he is and what a hard worker he is,” said SDSU Baseball coach Rob Bishop.
In between McCay’s last two starts, 1,002 days passed. Here’s what happened:
McCay came to SDSU by way of Carlisle, Iowa, a suburb southeast of Des Moines. A right handed pitcher, McCay was the #8 ranked player in the state of Iowa in 2017. His Prep Baseball scouting report went as follows: “Bulldog mentality on mound. Slick tuck and turn, stronger lower half, up and over delivery with quick clean arm action. Fastball was 86-89 mph, touching 90 mph, with flashes of late life.”
At SDSU, McCay excelled quickly. His freshman year, 2019, McCay went 6-1 on the mound, compiling a 4.08 ERA over 79.1 innings in 14 starts. McCay was an All-Summit Second Team member and was named to Collegiate Baseball’s Freshman All-American team.
In the fall, McCay returned to SDSU and “had a pretty good fall” but he started noticing “some arm stuff.”
“Over Christmas break, we tried to figure stuff out and did too much,” McCay said. “When I got back to SDSU during bullpens, when we were ramping up for the season, I wasn’t ready to ramp up.”
McCay found out that he tore his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in his right elbow. The pain can be different for everyone when the UCL tears, McCay said, but for him he didn’t feel it at all, his arm “just went numb.”
Initially, McCay, the coaches, and the athletic trainers didn’t know it was a torn UCL. After attempting some rehab and throwing, he couldn’t get the pain to go away. After getting an MRI, McCay found out it was torn and would require surgery.
“Right when I tore it, I was devastated for a little bit,” McCay said.
The timing of the injury couldn’t have been worse either. McCay estimates that he figured out it was a tear right when the COVID-19 pandemic was just taking hold in the US. Because of the shutdowns, McCay’s surgery would be put on the backburner and would significantly delay his recovery time.
The surgery McCay needed to repair his torn UCL would have to be done by a specialty surgeon as well, preferably someone who had experience doing “Tommy John surgery.”
Three months into the pandemic, McCay was able to get into a specialty clinic in Texas and get the surgery done by the Texas Rangers team surgical doctor, Dr. Keith Meister.
Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, more commonly known as “Tommy John surgery” is a fairly common surgery for a very common baseball injury. The surgery was developed in 1974 by the Los Angeles Dodgers team physician Frank Jobe. It was named “Tommy John surgery” after the first player to successfully complete the reconstruction, Tommy John, a left handed pitcher for the Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, California Angels, New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics, who won 288 games over the course of his career.
McCay says he hardly remembers the surgery but he woke up 30 minutes later to a replaced UCL in his right elbow.
Post-surgery
Six months after the surgery, McCay started throwing again. Before even beginning to throw however, McCay started extensive rehab on his rotator cuff while also strengthening his arm and his legs.
“You ramp up from there. It gets to the point where pretty much every day you are sitting in the corner doing band exercises for hours,” McCay said. “It gets a little monotonous because there is no one to compete with when you are by yourself but you know the whole time it is for a reason.
“It wasn’t terrible, I had a lot of people supporting me,” McCay added. “It was pretty easy when they would come help out.”
While rehabbing, McCay had to adjust to something he had never really experienced: not playing baseball.
“Ever since I was a kid I never really had an injury like this,” McCay said. “I’ve never really had to sit out and really just watch people do what I wanted to do.”
McCay explained that his role changed during the 2021 season. Rather than being “the guy” he had to help someone else fill the role as starter.
“At first it was a pretty tough pill to swallow but when I accepted that I wasn’t going to be able to play again I kind of had to put the team first and help out that way,” McCay explained. “Learning a new role and helping the team out was the biggest part.”
“Nic is just a great kid and a great worker,” Bishop said. “A really good leader in our program.”
McCay said that he had a lot of coaches and teammates/friends who had also gone through Tommy John surgery so whenever he got down on himself he was able to lean on other people.
“For as hard as kids throw nowadays even in high school, there’s a lot more Tommy John injuries,” SDSU head baseball coach Rob Bishop explains. Two other players on SDSU’s team have had and recovered from Tommy John surgery.
It was unfortunate that McCay’s injury occurred at the start of the pandemic because it delayed his recovery. But because it happened at the start of COVID, no one got to play because the season was cancelled anyways. Further, the NCAA granted extra eligibility to those who missed the year which meant that McCay got a “free” year of eligibility.
“Not many people even knew I had a surgery,” McCay said. “They just thought I missed a couple starts. I didn’t even have to go public with anything or tell anybody what was going on with me until the next season.”
The ramifications to McCay’s delayed surgery didn’t kick in until the 2021 season. According to Bishop, if McCay could have gotten the surgery on-time, he would have been back in the mix about mid-season but because of the delay, McCay missed the entirety of the 2021 season.
“I missed another full season so that’s where it kind of kicked in that this was a longer road than I thought,” McCay said. “But it was all worth it, now we are here and ready to go.”
According to Bishop, McCay’s recovery has gone well and he would have been ready to pitch last September if there had been games.
McCay says that he is excited to get the season going and is scheduled to pitch the first game of the year vs. Purdue.
“He’s ready to go,” Bishop said. “He’ll start on opening day.”
Bishop explained that they will be cognizant of pitch count the first two or three weekends to make sure everyone in the rotation is in a good spot for the rest of the year.
“He’s trained as hard as anybody for the season,” Bishop said.
“The nerves are starting to kick in,” McCay said. “I haven’t slept for probably a week.”
McCay says his arm is feeling good – almost better than it was pretty surgery. One of the misconceptions about Tommy John surgery, McCay said, is that people believe the surgery makes a pitcher’s arm stronger.
McCay, who threw 90-91 mph fastball pre-surgery, is throwing harder now, in the 91-93 mph range. He credits the increase in speed to the rehab and a greater focus on arm health.
“I have been working more on being healthy so the velocity is just kind of a cherry on top,” McCay said.
A fastball pitcher at heart, McCay also throws a curveball and changeup.
“Over the course of my two year rehab program, I’ve also developed a slider/cutter type pitch,” McCay said. “I’ll use it a couple times and see how it works.”
Going into this season, McCay is ranked as the top prospect in the Summit League.
“Definitely going into the season he’s one of the best prospects in the league,” Bishop said. “He hasn’t been on the field for two years so I don’t want to put undue pressure on Nic, I just want him to go out and be himself.”
McCay said that every time he gets out there to pitch it’s going to be special for him. He is looking forward to the series at Oral Roberts in Oklahoma as he has some former coaches and teammates planning to come watch.
“I’m taking it game by game and being excited for them as they come,” McCay said.
Note:
SDSU began their season on Feb. 18 vs. Purdue University of the Big Ten Conference. McCay pitched four innings, allowing four runs on three hits. He struck out four, walked two and hit two batters.
SDSU lost 4-5. Purdue ended up winning the next three games during the weekend series in Sugar Land, Texas.
The Jacks will return to action in the Lone Star State again this weekend with a three game tilt with Incarnate Word of the Southland Conference. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Feb. 24 in San Antonio, Texas.