Braves reliever Chase Whitley will begin the season on the 10-day disabled list, but the Alabama native should be back before mid-April and said he’s fortunate that his wife has a nursing background, or things might’ve gotten much worse with a staph infection in his right heel.
“Very blessed,” said Whitley, 28, who was scared briefly when it was uncertain what caused numbness in his leg and a fluctuation in his heart rate. “We caught it early. It felt like I sprained my ankle, ’cause it was swollen up. Then when it got to my lymph nodes it was like, OK, we’ve got something going on.
“But we caught it, and then it was just a matter of, I couldn’t do anything until the antibiotics ran its course.”
Whitley made two February appearances in the first week of Grapefruit League games and was preparing for his third when the right-hander woke in early March with what felt like a blister or bruise in his heel. He didn’t think much of it since those things can happen early in spring training with all the standing around and running in new cleats.
“I pitched and threw a bullpen (session) and was going to make a trip to Dunedin (March 6 vs. the Blue Jays),” he said. “And then I came in and I was like, golly, my leg, I can’t even walk.”
Whitley said his wife thought worsening stiffness in his leg was problematic, then knew something was wrong when he became sore near his groin, where some lymph nodes are located.
“She’s not practicing right now, but she got her degree, she’s a registered nurse,” he said. “She actually started some treatment and stuff the night before I came in (and got treatment from the team medical staff). So she did a good job.”
Later, he said the injury looked, “just like a regular blood blister. It was pretty gross. They drained it and everything.”
It’s a setback, but not as serious or lengthy as it could have been for Whitley, who was claimed off waivers by the Braves from the Rays in December and had been expected to be in the opening-day bullpen before the health scare.
“I basically just missed a week, but during that week, because it had got into my lymph nodes, we didn’t want to do anything, running or anything,” he said. “So I basically just missed a week of throwing. I moved my arm a little bit in that time, but you can’t do what you need to do. Then in the first couple of days I got back to throwing, it felt like I rolled out of bed and tried to play catch, the next three or four days. And then we started progressing from there.”
He’s scheduled to throw live batting practice Saturday, then pitch in some games beginning next week -- simulated games with the Triple-A Gwinnett Stripers or extended spring-training games before some minor league seasons open April 5. Whitley’s DL stint with be retroactive for the maximum allowed three days of spring training and make him eligible to be activated as soon as an April 6 road-trip opener at Colorado, although he might need more time.
“I’m aiming for that,” he said. “But the thing is, like I told them -- and everybody’s on the same page, which is the best way to be -– going to the Kentucky Derby, you wouldn’t want to bet on a horse that wasn’t ready to go. So I want to make sure, they want to make sure. I’m not helping the team if I’m not where I need to be, and that’s being able to throw multiple innings, get back up and throw the next day, whatever it might be.”
He’s dealt with injuries before, including Tommy John elbow surgery.
Born and raised in tiny Ranburne, Ala., the former Troy University standout debuted in 2014 and pitched for parts of two seasons for the Yankees before spending the past two with the Rays. He had a 4.08 ERA and 1.116 WHIP (walks-plus-hits per inning pitched) in 41 relief appearances for the Rays in 2017 while totaling 43 strikeouts with 16 walks in 57 1/3 innings.
He made 12 starts among 24 outings with the Yankees as a rookie in 2014, then four starts in 2015 before blowing out his elbow and having surgery.
