Coming Back Stronger: Pitcher continues year-long rehabilitation process after Tommy John surgery

Martens never suffered a serious injury during his 18-year baseball career until his freshman year at CMU. He sustained a flexor muscle mass strain in his arm at the beginning of the fall 2015 semester. He was back on the mound the day before Thanksgiving break and was pitching to live hitters by January.

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But the strain grew into a bigger problem. Because the tear was too small for doctors to catch at first glance, they didn’t think anything was wrong with it.

It caused a slight tear in the ulnar-collateral ligament, causing a "pretty sharp pain" throughout Martens' elbow and numbness in his pinky finger. This forced the Clarkston native to miss all of the 2016 season to undergo ulnar-collateral ligament reconstruction — also known as Tommy John surgery.

Coming off a 6-1, 3.22 ERA freshman season where he was named to the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American team and was a nominee for Mid-American Conference pitcher of the year, Martens couldn’t believe the news he was given. 

The CMU baseball team’s pitching staff has struggled without Martens (and other relievers absent from the team) as the pitching staff’s ERA was 6.17 entering Sunday. The team’s ERA was 3.64 last season.

Now, Martens quietly, but anxiously, waits for his return. He contributes to the team in a different way; by passing on his experiences to the younger players.

"I think (the surgery) made me a lot stronger (physically and emotionally)." Martens said. "An injury like this makes you really take a step back and realize that at any point everything you work for can be taken away. So it just really enforces the mentality I have about always working as hard as you can and not taking anything for granted."

Martens' motivation

Since the injury occurred, Martens said he turned the adversity into a learning experience.

“It kind of made me realize you never know when it’s going to happen,” Martens said. “But ever since it did happen, it’s made me put more of an emphasis on making sure everything’s done. It’s probably the last thing I ever thought was gonna happen when I went to go to a doctor’s appointment.”

Martens received support from former teammates, right-handed pitcher Taylor Lehnert and left-handed pitcher Matt Trowbridge. They both had Tommy John surgery and encouraged Martens throughout the process.

Lehnert was completing the later part of his rehab process when Martens arrived his freshman year, so Martens wasn’t able to see his initial responses to the surgery. Trowbridge was four months into rehab when Martens began talking about it with him.

“Once I got (the surgery), (Trowbridge) was really big in getting me ready (and said things) like ‘Oh, this is what’s gonna happen. This part sucks, this part’s not too bad,’” Martens said. “Whenever I had questions I was able to go to him. Same thing with (Lehnert). Whenever I’d wake up with a tightness I’d text him like ‘Hey is this normal?’”

Sophomore shortstop Zach McKinstry lives with Martens and has seen him go through recovering from the injury firsthand. McKinstry even helped Martens put on shirts a few times after the surgery when he wasn’t able to do it himself.

“He wants to be a leader, but it’s hard to be a leader when you’re not there,” McKinstry said. “He’s going to be a huge part of our team next year and we know that. He was a huge part of our team last year with his ERA and when he came onto the mound, he had that presence like ‘I’m gonna get it done and nobody’s better than me.’ He’s one of those guys that will go and compete for us.”

Post Tommy John: Coming Back Stronger

A torn UCL most commonly occurs through the unnatural motion of pitching a baseball. Surgeons have to replace the ligament in the throwing elbow with a tendon from somewhere else in the person’s body, most commonly the forearm, hamstring or foot.

In Martens’ case, it was the palmaris longus tendon in his right forearm. 

This procedure was first tested on an MLB pitcher named Tommy John. In 1974, the Los Angeles Dodgers' pitcher underwent the surgery and was forced to miss the rest of the season and the entire 1975 season. He came back to have a career that featured four All-Star nominations, three 20-win seasons, 12 seasons of 200 or more innings pitched and the 1976 NL Comeback Player of the Year.

At the time for John’s surgery, his doctor, Dr. Frank Jobe, gave him a 1-in-100 chance of pitching again. John rehabilitated his arm for 18 months and returned for the 1976 season. He pitched until 1989 at the age of 46.

With so many pitchers like John being successful after recovering from the surgery, Martens thinks the surgery has turned into a "huge positive step" in his career.

"I'm going to be able to re-learn my mechanics and make sure everything is on point," he said. "I've been able to focus more on the mental side of pitching and really get into the visualization."

With the long rehab process and having to sit out for the entire 2016 season, Martens says there could be worse injuries to have and that he'd rather have a UCL tear than a shoulder injury. Since his is a "baseball-specific injury" he said it is easier to treat it.

Martens' surgeon, Dr. James Lebolt, has been practicing for 10 years. He worked with Dr. James Andrews — a widely-known sports surgeon — then started practicing on his own at Virginia Tech. He said he has performed Tommy John surgery “probably 350 times by now” and Dr. Andrews has performed it more than 2,000 times.

“My main goal is getting the athlete back to the sport they want to play,” Lebolt said. “The surgery itself is really the simple part. It’s really the recovery time and effort that goes in with the therapists, with the athletic trainers after the surgery. That’s really where my concern lies.”

The surgery lasts about an hour, but Lebolt said recovery time could be anywhere from 8-to-18 months depending on what position the athlete plays.

“We are relying on these tissues to basically grow in the bone, we need soft tissue to grow in the bone,” Lebolt said. “And that whole process to regain strength and to regrow takes that long. Pitchers and catchers put more stress on that structure. It takes that incorporation and growth longer to heal so they are able to put that stress back through the able. That’s why it takes a longer time frame than say an (infielder or outfielder).”

Surgery and rehab

Martens' torn UCL occurred through a gradual wear down. He successfully received Tommy John surgery on Jan. 19 and started rehabilitation a week later on Jan. 26.

When the doctors cut open Martens’ arm for the surgery, they cleaned out previous scar tissue from his injury his freshman season around the UCL in his pitching elbow. The damage was so small on the UCL the scar tissue and rehab for his flexor muscle mass strain was able to temporarily heal it.

Martens said he is "on schedule” for his rehabilitation program. He started medicine ball throws during his eighth week of rehab, something he wasn’t supposed to do until week 12.

“It is an everyday commitment,” Martens said. “Every day I take off, I’m losing a couple of days of what I’ve progressed to. Every day I do stuff with our trainers here who are doing an awesome job.”

The ligament has healed, but now Martens must strengthen his elbow to get back to throwing a 90-plus mile per hour fastball.

Martens was receiving physical therapy at Mountain Town Rehab in Mount Pleasant, but now does it at the Indoor Athletic Complex. At Mountain Town, the trainers broke down Martens’ scar tissue and helped him regain flexibility. The trainers implemented the Gratson Technique, which uses bars to massage and break down scar tissue.

Now at the IAC, he is working on pitching mechanics — specifically the flexibility in his hips. He also receives an ultrasound on his elbow almost every day to help loosen the deeper tissue around the injury.

Looking forward

Although he can’t play this season, Martens is still appreciative of the opportunity to play baseball at CMU.

“It definitely makes me thankful,” Martens said. “God gives you skills and talent and it can be taken away at any point.”

During the summer, Martens plans to go home for the first month and continue rehabbing there. He will come back to Mount Pleasant in July and will be working with trainers at CMU on his pitching.

Because Martens is sitting out an entire season, he will use a medical redshirt, giving him an extra year of eligibility. He wants to continue the success of his freshman year and come back stronger, more competitive and more mature.

Martens plans on getting back on the mound in June and being 100 percent heathy by November. If all goes right, Martens will be closing the first game of the year in 2017.

“This is more of a motivational thing,” Martens said. “It just made me realize how easily something can be taken away, no matter how hard you work towards it. It’s going to make me come back that much hungrier and ready to compete again.”