Jamie Moyer was a starter for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2010. He didn't pitch after July 20 due to a left elbow sprain. He decided to go play winter ball in the Dominican to show that his arm was healthy, but what happened instead is that he re-injured himself, and the injury was sufficiently bad that Moises Alou - the GM of Moyer's winter league team - figured that his career was over. Moyer had Tommy John surgery on December 1. At that point, he was 48 years old.
Jamie Moyer And The Not-Impossible Dream
Jamie Moyer turns 49 in a few weeks, and he’s attempting to make a comeback from major elbow surgery. And he’s probably going to do it.
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Moyer swore at the time that he’d be back, or at least that he’d try his damnedest, but it was fairly easy to dismiss those claims as the ravings of a madman. A 48-year-old pitcher with incredibly limited stuff undergoing ligament replacement surgery? No, no, there was just no way. Moyer couldn’t possibly keep going.
It was our own fault for ever doubting him. Jamie Moyer is the new baseball cockroach.
@Ken_Rosenthal
Ken Rosenthal Jamie Moyer threw for scouts last Thursday in SD area. Reports from scouts excellent. Nearly a year removed from TJ. Turns 49 Nov. 18.
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Scout 1: Yep!
Scout 2: Same shitty stuff as always!
Scout 3: Still a slop-throwing mess whose two decades of success I refuse to believe!
For younger pitchers, Tommy John surgery isn’t that big of a deal anymore. It’s more of a delay than anything else. They get hurt and have to miss a year of action, which sucks, but after they rehab, they tend to be back to normal, if not a little better than that. It’s okay.
The issue with Moyer is that he’s not a young pitcher. Older people recover more slowly. If it takes a pitcher half Moyer’s age 9-12 months to come back from Tommy John surgery, could Moyer really do it in a comparable period of time? Could Moyer really do it at all?
It was a combination of that uncertainty and the improbability of Jamie Moyer's entire career that I think led to a lot of people writing him off, or at least not counting on him to return. But here we are, and provided he stays healthy, Moyer's going to get a job. Maybe it's a non-guaranteed job. Maybe he shows up at somebody's spring training having to earn a rotation spot. Maybe he even has to begin the 2012 season in triple-A. But Jamie Moyer is going to get work, and he's going to get work at 49.
In case you’re wondering, here’s the list of pitchers who have pitched in the Major Leagues at 49 or older:
Hoyt Wilhelm (1972)
Jack Quinn (1933)
Satchel Paige (1965)
Combined, those guys threw 44 innings. If Jamie Moyer lands a rotation spot, he’ll be all but guaranteed to make history.
And you know what? There’s reason to believe that Moyer would be just fine in 2012. Let’s assume that the operation didn’t cost Moyer any of what stuff he had left. Between 2009-2010, Moyer posted a 4.90 ERA and a 5.04 FIP. Those would be fine numbers from the back of a rotation, and they’re inflated by a home run rate you could argue Moyer wouldn’t sustain. His strikeout-to-walk numbers were perfectly acceptable.
Jamie Moyer isn’t dead yet. There’s no guarantee that he’ll still be a big league-caliber pitcher next season, but early reports are encouraging, and he might not only pitch - he could pitch and make a contribution. So in case you’d lost track, yeah, Jamie Moyer’s still amazing.
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