NORTH PORT, Fla. – In his time away from baseball, Tyler Matzek came to appreciate the game much more because of how much he missed it.
“Yeah, a ton,” he said. “I learned maybe that I’m super competitive, and so I found myself trying to compete in things that aren’t super competitive, that you don’t need to be competitive in. I needed that outlet.”
He became competitive – super competitive – in video games. He joked that he had to tell himself, “Hey, this is not important, calm down.” But these gaming sessions, when he would play “Call of Duty” with his teammates, were all he had. He could not pitch, he could not compete.
He would play chess with his wife, Lauren, to pass the time while the couple watched the Braves play on television. Tyler would be at the ballpark to keep doing his rehab after Tommy John surgery, but something was missing.
He longed to be on the mound again.
“It stinks not to be out there,” Matzek said. “I want to go out there and help the guys win.”
And so, in a way, this spring feels somewhat celebratory. Matzek, who is about 16 months out from his procedure, is back. He’s fully healthy without any limitations. Barring anything
Matzek hopes to be ready for opening day. If he isn’t, he said, he could open the season on the injured list to get a couple rehab outings. This, Matzek said, is not likely, but is a safety net for him and the club.
Everything is headed in the correct direction, he said, but if the Braves need him to slow down, he can simply start the season with a short injured-list stint. This way, he’s not pushing himself too hard while thinking he only has six weeks to be ready. The Braves want him healthy.
But this doesn’t mean he’s had any setbacks.
“No, no, no, no setbacks, nothing like that,” Matzek said.
During his lengthy recovery, Matzek talked to others who had Tommy John surgery – Spencer Strider, A.J. Minter, Kirby Yates – and those who know a lot about it. Strider was particularly helpful. “Strider, he knows a lot and dives in and kind of becomes obsessed on things,” Matzek said. The left-handed reliever, who was a postseason hero in 2021, had tons of questions.
His recovery process had lots of ups and downs. He wanted to know what was normal and what he could expect.
“Everyone that goes through the process has the same questions,” Matzek said, “but they don’t talk about it until somebody actually asks them, if that makes sense.”
Is it normal to feel tightness here?
Is it normal to feel soreness there?
“If you’re hyper-focused on, ‘My elbow is supposed to feel like (this),’ you’re always trying to feel something,” Matzek said. “Normal day in life, I wouldn’t even think twice about any of the discomfort I was going through.”
This was months and months ago. Now, Matzek feels healthy.
His injured back – he suffered a bulging disk after working out, which he believes eventually caused his elbow to break down – is fully healthy. He received injections a while back and he’s felt no recent pain. His elbow feels great.
Matzek is throwing bullpen sessions, but the next step, eventually, will be facing hitters.
“It’s just going to be about getting him competition again,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said.
Matzek credited the Braves’ medical team, which guided his smooth recovery. And now, he can focus on pitching.
After the 2022 season, the Braves signed Matzek to a two-year deal, with a club option. They knew he would miss all of 2023, but they still took care of him. Matzek will make $1.9 million this season before the Braves decide on his $5.5 million club option.
Two and a half years ago, Matzek starred in the postseason. He created one of the top moments in franchise history when Matzek struck out three straight Dodgers to strand runners on second and third and hold the lead as the Braves punched a ticket to the World Series.
As Matzek returns, he steps into a clubhouse with players who have expressed the club’s “World Series or bust” mindset. There might be more magical October moments in store for Matzek.
“Obviously, that’s the special time of baseball,” he said. “We play the whole entire season for that one month of baseball. Yeah, I want to get back there, I think every player wants to get there. We set the goal of getting there, and now it’s, ‘OK, we want to go do something special.’ We have the roster to do it, and I’m just happy to be on this roster and we’ll see where we go from there.”
