Fans have been wondering, with bated breath and bitten nails, whether Jacob Lopez is fully healthy following his season-ending IL stint from the dreaded “forearm tightness”. Turns out fans weren’t the only one expelling bricks though orifices.
I sat down with Lopez on Monday, March 16th, for what turned out to be an abbreviated interview because after 5 minutes I could see him looking out at the field anxiously even though he never said he needed to go. Clearly he did and so I did a shorter interview than usual — but still was able to cover the key topics that had made him one of my requested targets this spring.
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Nico: So first of all, you’re coming off a great outing on Saturday. You’ve been through injuries and rehabs before, and then you had a scare at the end of last year, or maybe more than a scare, because you were on the IL. But can you talk a bit first about what happened at the end of last year, what it felt like, how it felt compared to what you had been through before (TJS)?
Lopez: Yeah, it was pretty scary that day in Seattle, because I felt a little bit of tightness in the bullpen, but I didn’t think much of it because you know, later in the year you feel a lot of things. But I think once I started doing arm care after my outing, I really flared up and I was like, “Oh no, this feels worse than when I did have TJ” and it was, it was in that scary spot, you know? So I was just thinking all the worst things, but luckily it ended up just being like some kind of soft tissue thing where my ulnar nerve used to be before they moved it back in 2021. So it ended up being something that could heal on its own. So that’s what it did this off season and I feel pretty good.
Nico: I feel like pitchers have this constant difficult decision to make where they do feel something — they feel soreness, they feel tightness, they feel something that’s kind of like pain or that reminds them of an injury that was serious. And then they have to decide, do I go out and throw anyway? Do I say something? What do I do? So can you kind of walk us through that experience as a pitcher trying to figure out like what to make of something?
Lopez: Yeah, I think once I went through the TJ process, I really learned what’s actual pain and what is something that you can kind of toughen out and push through. So for me personally, there’s probably only three or four starts last year where I felt 100%, probably June through July, my whole, I don’t know, I had some upper back problems that wouldn’t go away. And I think adrenaline helps take over, but in between starts, it’s like, “All right, what can we do every day in the training room and the strength room to really figure it out and get back out there in five days?” So I think that’s the most important thing for the starting pitcher.
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Nico: Now, that outing in Seattle, fans are watching, and you’ve had such a great year. And obviously, you’re having a rough outing. What are you feeling out on the mound? Do you think you should have gone out there?
Lopez: Yeah, there is no doubt. If you tell the coaches you’re good, you’ve got to be fully confident. And it’s one of those things like, I can’t just stop in the middle of the first inning or something and leave the rest of my team out to dry. So no, when I’m out there I don’t think anything. I just believe in the full confidence and compete as best as I can.
Nico: There was a moment in Saturday’s start where you threw a pitch, you thought it was a strike. It was called a ball and you challenged and I saw you walk off to the back of the mound and the way that you got into it and you kind of let out a grunt I thought “Oh no he’s hurt,” you know, but it was all over a ball-strike call and it was a called third strike so it sounds to me like even in a spring training game the competitive juices are really flowing.
Lopez: Oh, no, I mean, yeah I’m just a really competitive guy. I mean, when I was younger, I was way more emotional, so hopefully it doesn’t show too much. That Shea challenge nailed it for the strikeout, so that was huge. I think it’s kind of fun. I loved it in AAA, the ABS, so it just helps keep the game smooth. But yeah, I’m an emotional guy, so I try to be as professional as I can out there. You know, my first live ABs this spring training, over at Fitch on the backfield felt the same as my MLB debut. So I guess that’s a good thing. I get a bunch of butterflies, so I just kind of learned how to control those.
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Nico: So I guess the question that’s probably on every fan’s mind right now is how you’re feeling physically and where you are in terms of injury and health at this very moment going forward.
Lopez: Yeah, I just feel 100 % and I felt like that really the whole off season. So yeah, I feel really confident to help this team. We have some pretty high goals and we’re gonna do our best as a team to fulfill those goals.
Nico: Now, you have an unusual motion. You know, you have a very deceptive delivery. {Here Jacob starts looking antsy and keeps monitoring the field} Can you just talk about that and then I’ll let you go. How did you develop that?
Lopez: I just, that’s how I’ve always thrown. It was worse in college and stuff, then my pitching coach in college is really the first person to really help control that. But no, I haven’t really worked ever, even in pro ball with pitching coaches, too much with my mechanics. Which has been a good thing to be as natural as I can.
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And with that Lopez, who was apparently due on the field with a pre-game group, exhaled and sprinted out to the infield even quicker than his best fastball.
Next up: Pitching coach Scott Emerson discusses the “kick change,” Jack Perkins’ role, and how he feels about Trainman (well, maybe only 2 of those 3)…
Read the full article here