LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Peter Moylan is attempting to come back from his second Tommy John elbow surgery and fourth major surgery in five years, and he’ll try to do it in the Braves organization where his most-unlikely career resurgence began.
Moylan, 36, has agreed to a minor league deal with the Braves and will report to their minor league camp next week. The Aussie sidearmer is just over 11 months into his recovery from his second TJ surgery and recently said his goal was to fully recovered by the end of spring training.
It’s believed there had also been discussions among Braves officials about approaching Moylan regarding the rookie-league Danville coaching position, which became open when the Braves moved Dan Meyer into a newly created position as coordinator of minor league pitching rehab.
One of the best and most-used relievers in baseball from 2007 through 2010, Moylan has been limited by injuries and surgeries to just 35 appearances in the past four seasons and last pitched in the majors with the Dodgers in 2013.
He was a non-roster invitee to Astros camp in 2014, but missed the season after tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow for the second time during spring training and having Tommy John surgery in late March. He had his first TJ surgery with the Braves in 2008.
Moylan became one of the most popular Braves among fans and teammates alike while spending the first seven seasons of his major league career with the team, which signed the then-bespectacled pharmaceutical salesman after his impressive showing for Australia in the 2006 World Baseball Classic – after he’d been out of American professional baseball for nine years following a brief minor league career with the Twins.
After dropping his arm angle to become a sidearmer while pitching in an Australian semi-pro league, Moylan had gained 10 mph on his fastball.
His gregarious personality and dry sense of humor made him a hit off the field, but it was his performance with the Braves that made Moylan a major contributor for three of four seasons from 2007 through 2010. He had a 1.80 ERA in 80 appearances (90 innings) as a 28-year-old rookie in 2007, missed much of the 2008 season recovering from his first Tommy John surgery, then came back to post a 2.90 ERA in a whopping 172 appearances during the 2009-2010 season.
That included a franchise-record 87 appearances in ’09 in his first season after TJ surgery.
Moylan missed most of the next two seasons with the Braves while recovering from surgeries on his back and shoulder, totaling just 21 appearances in that two-year span before he was non-tendered by the Braves at the end of November 2012.
