CLEARWATER, Fla — Mark Appel first suspected something was wrong back in 2013, in his first professional stint after ending his college career with a successful season at Stanford.
Now 25 years old and competing for a job on the Philadelphia Phillies’ opening day roster, Appel remembers the initial onset of sporadic symptoms that would slowly become more familiar: Swelling and discomfort in his throwing arm after starts, and an inability to fully extend his elbow.
“I pitched my college season, and I didn’t remember feeling a single thing,” Appel told USA TODAY Sports at Phillies camp last week. “I started playing pro ball, and I remember, a couple times, asking one of my teammates in the low level minors with the Astros, like, ‘Hey, do you kind of feel this way?’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, seomtimes. You’re fine.'”
Appel ranked near the top of most draft boards after his junior season at Stanford in 2012, but the Astros instead chose Carlos Correa with the first-overall pick due to concerns they would not be able to meet Appel’s bonus demands. The righty fell to Pittsburgh with the No. 8 selection, but returned to Stanford after his camp could not negotiate a deal with the Pirates. After Appel completed his degree in management science and engineering, the Astros drafted him first overall in 2013 — one spot before reigning NL MVP Kris Bryant — and signed him to a $6.35 million bonus.
After the draft, Houston GM Jeff Luhnow called Appel “a future ace.” A Baseball America report in the wake of the selection praised Appel’s “ideal” mechanics and “bulldog” mentality. He could dial his fastball up into the high 90s, and complemented it with a nasty slider that could generate whiffs and a promising changeup to keep opponents off balance. With a lean 6’5″ build ideal for starting and an advanced arsenal of potential plus pitches, Appel appeared the rare high-ceiling, high-floor pitching prospect, a polished Pac-12 product with frontline potential.
Mark Appel (left) with Astros GM Jeff Luhnow in 2013. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
Appel made 10 starts in the low minors for the Astros that season before the club shut him down to limit his innings. Prospects expert John Sickels, after Appel’s final outing of the season, noted that he appeared “poised and confident” despite some inconsistency in the command of his pitches. He threw without pain, and only seldom endured the encroaching stiffness he now recognizes as the first indications of a bone spur in his throwing elbow that doctors finally removed in a season-ending surgery this past June.
“Looking back, there definitely was an issue,” Appel said. “And there are X-rays and MRIs that show there was an issue and I was pitching through it. I was able to compromise and compete the best I could.”
“It makes a lot of sense, why in the past, I just didn’t feel that great on the mound. I was still able to throw without pain, but I didn’t perform to the abilities that I wanted to…. Then over time it got worse and worse and worse, until I needed surgery.”
Getting drafted with the first overall pick in the first round — “one-one,” in baseball parlance — comes with plenty of attention and expectations, and in a sport that prides itself on its meritocratic nature, any perceived preferential treatment for a top pick can breed resentment. Many experts believed Appel would be ready for the Majors by sometime in the 2014 season, and Appel wanted badly to make good on the Astros’ faith in his arm. So he kept pitching even as his elbow began “locking up” — in his words — more frequently.
“Given where I was, and the investment that the Astros put in me — the belief that they had in me — I wanted to compete,” Appel said. “I love playing baseball; I love pitching. But I also just wanted to give my best effort and be somebody — the Astros made a huge investment, and I don’t take that lightly. I wanted to be able to perform and be the guy that I know I can be for a team that drafted me in the first round. So with that being said, it’s like, ‘I can’t do any of that on the DL. It doesn’t hurt to throw. I’m not getting any extension, but it doesn’t hurt to throw, and I can compete, I can find a way.’
“I think it was a little bit of pride in me, not going to get it checked out or anything like that. But also it wasn’t to the point that I was feeling pain every time I threw a baseball. I just couldn’t get extension, and I didn’t realize the effect it had on me.”
Mark Appel during his time in the Astros system in 2015. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
The Class A Advanced California League is a notoriously bad place to pitch, but even by that circuit’s standards, Appel struggled mightily while playing for the Astros’ affiliate in Lancaster in 2014. An eyewitness report at Baseball Prospectus in late June noted that, in one start, “the fastball velocity was well down from his usual range,” questioned Appel’s desire, and said that he “just doesn’t look like the player he was drafted to be.” By late July, a time when many once expected Appel would already be on the brink of longterm big-league success, he had an atrocious 9.74 ERA across 44 1/3 innings at Lancaster.
By reputation, Appel represented the biggest prospect in a 2014 Lancaster rotation that also included Lance McCullers, who’s now one of the Astros’ best pitchers, Vince Velasquez, a breakout success for the Phillies in 2016, and lefty Josh Hader, now the Brewers’ top pitching prospect. McCullers, Velasquez and Hader all outperformed Appel in the California League, and when Appel — still considered “as safe of a pitching prospect as there has ever been” — got promoted to Class AA ball and invited to throw a bullpen session for team brass at Minute Maid Park in Houston, the big-league Astros’ clubhouse exploded in anger.
“So now you get rewarded for having an 11 ERA?” one anonymous Astro asked the Houston Chronicle.
Appel didn’t draft himself first overall in 2013 and didn’t sign himself to that seven-figure bonus. And while he appreciates that his one-one status bought him chances some of his minor-league teammates might never get, he understands now that the expectations led him to pitch through an injury that prevented him from meeting them.
“Being drafted high, there are so many blessings, and also so many things that it’s like, man, I wish I didn’t have to deal with this,” he said. “I’m just trying to be real: When you’re the first overall pick, people watch what you do and take interest. There’s a reason why I was drafted so high. I have this God-given ability and was able to maximize that in college and able to perform well, so I’m super grateful for all the opportunities that I’m given.
“But it definitely humbles me knowing that, because of my draft status, I have had some opportunities that any other player that has had kind of my performance wouldn’t have, if they’re a lower-round draft pick or something like that. But I can’t control it.”
Appel (right) with fellow Stanford product Andrew Luck (AP Photo/Stanford University, Casey Valentine)
Asked if the pressure that comes with a first-overall draft pick might work against a player, Phillies manager Pete Mackanin expressed little sympathy.
“Everybody’s individual, and everybody has to deal with their circumstances as best as they can,” Mackanin said. “It’s all about how you deal with your own circumstances. If it puts too much pressure on a somebody who’s a first-round pick, maybe he’s not the kind of guy you’re looking for. If a guy who’s (drafted in the 35th round) doesn’t believe in himself, he’s not the right guy.
“Everybody’s got pressure. I’ve got pressure. The coaches have pressure. How you deal with the pressure is what determines how successful or unsuccessful you are. I wouldn’t want to use that as a crutch, in other words.”
Appel pitched fairly well at Class AA Corpus Christi after his 2014 promotion, but returned to the level to start the 2015 campaign. Again, the pitcher saw inconsistent returns, starting the year with a couple of strong starts before turning in a few clunkers. Again, he battled the elbow issues that now bothered him more frequently. Again, late-round picks like Hader and Chris Devenski yielded lower ERAs than Appel, but again the Astros promoted Appel in the middle of the season.
The pattern continued at Class AAA: A couple of good starts, a few bad ones. More trouble getting full extension from his elbow, more swelling and soreness after starts. By the time the Astros traded Appel to the Phillies in December of 2015 as part of a five-player package for closer Ken Giles, Appel’s stock had finally dropped to match his performance: That offseason, for the first time as a pro, he failed to crack Baseball America’s list of Top 100 prospects, and by preseason he barely even registered among the rebuilding Phillies’ most promising young players. By spring training, his fastball velocity was down in the low 90s, and the team dispatched him to minor league camp in early March despite uncertainty throughout the big-league rotation.
(AP Photo/Chris O’Meara)
Appel made a handful of good starts for the Phillies’ Class AAA club to start 2016, but the elbow discomfort that once followed only select starts now returned every week. After four rough starts in May, he hit the disabled list with a sore shoulder. While Appel rehabbed that ailment, Phillies doctors discovered the bone spur that necessitated season-ending surgery in late June.
The pitcher spoke cautiously when asked about his recovery last week, noting that he now feels fully healthy but that, of course, it’s still too early in the spring to know exactly how his body will hold up to a starter’s workload. And Appel believes the struggles that have marked his pro career to date will make him a better pitcher and a better person.
“When you’re in High-A and you have a 10.5 ERA, that’s not fun,” he said, when asked if he ever stopped enjoying baseball along the way. “When you aren’t feeling well, when you’re pitching every fifth day and you can’t recover between your starts, yeah, there were definitely times when it’s not fun. I can be upset, or I can be sad and frustrated or whatever, but even in those moments, I think of all the fun times I’ve had. That can really help you get through those struggles and those tough times, and continues to give you hope for the future, and continues to let you work hard and have a positive attitude no matter how bleak the circumstances look.
“That’s a bunch of stuff that I’ve learned over the last few years, going through this process: Struggling — struggling a lot — then getting traded, and then having surgery, it seems like every year it’s something different. But I’m learning through it all, and I trust that the Lord’s making me a better person and a better teammate and a better player for the organization.”
With the return of Jeremy Hellickson and the offseason addition of veteran Clay Buchholz to a Phillies rotation that already includes a host of promising young arms, Appel appears ticketed to return to Class AAA Lehigh to start the season. For perhaps the first time in his career, he will need to earn his next promotion. Appel knows that, and looks forward to the chance to do so while pitching unburdened by the bone spur for the first time as a professional.
“It’s going to be fun this year to see what I can do when I go out there with a healthy arm and a renewed mindset,” the pitcher said. “Baseball’s an industry of pure performance: If you get the job done, you’re going to get your opportunity.”
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