Carter Baumler's rehab from surgery has been moving along well

The Orioles have to be encouraged by the early returns on their six-player 2020 draft. They've seen Jordan Westburg, Hudson Haskin, Anthony Servideo and Coby Mayo do some nice things. Now they look to get Heston Kjerstad and Carter Baumler in the mix.

Both Kjerstad, the No. 2 overall pick in that draft, and Baumler, the right-hander the Orioles drafted in round five (No. 133 overall), should be on the field in games when the 2022 season begins.

Baumler has only pitched in one game since the end of the 2019 season. He made one start for Dowling Catholic High School in Iowa during the 2020 season before it was shut down by the pandemic. He was throwing well at the Orioles' instructional league following the season before he was shut down by an elbow issue that led to Tommy John surgery.

He is now just over a year out from that procedure, by Dr. Keith Meister in Dallas on Oct. 28, 2020.

Baumler and Kjerstad are related in one sense. The Orioles going underslot on Kjerstad allowed them to go overslot in that draft on both Mayo and Baumler. The fifth-round slot for Baumler was $422,300 and he signed for $1.5 million as the O's got him out of a firm commitment to play college ball at Texas Christian University.

But then the pitcher they liked so much underwent surgery. A year later, the long rehab part is mostly over.

"I finished my whole throwing program and I'm cleared to have a pretty normal offseason," Baumler said Friday morning on an O's Zoom call with media. "There are still, like, a couple of things we are still kind of working out, like a throwing program going into next year. For the most part, I'm pretty much a full go getting ready for 2022.

"I have not thrown to a hitter yet. I completed my whole mound progression up until, like, my last mound would have been pretty much just a normal bullpen. That's what I've worked up to. Right now, just the goal is having a normal throwing program until spring training 2022.

"I'm super excited. But I definitely do need to stay patient and just go day-by-day with it," he said.

Baumler, 19, is ranked as the club's No. 27 prospect by MLBPipeline.com. Scouts report that his fastball as an amateur ranged from 90 to 94 mph, and they put plus grades on his fastball and curveball.

The young pitcher had to deal with the mental hurdles of Tommy John.

"You know, I'd like to think that I'm a pretty mentally tough person. It has been a little tough at times," Baumler said. "The TJ rehab process is tough for anybody and is something you definitely can't prepare for. The biggest part about it is just being patient, and that's what I've tried to do. But I think it's been a good thing for me and I've learned a ton through the whole process."

He has strong confidence that all the quality pitches he had pre-surgery will be back.

"With how the throwing program went, we took pretty much, like, two weeks on each pitch," said Baumler. "You know, I take two weeks to throw my changeup, two weeks to throw my curveball and pretty much, like, four or five months to throw my fastball. I think my stuff, I don't have a problem there. I know where I need to be and I'll have plenty of time in a throwing program before spring training in 2022 to get my stuff down. So, there is not a worry there."

He's had time to get to know Kjerstad better during his own rehab from the effects of myocarditis. Baumler said players going through rehab can become closer, and he gave both Kjerstad and the Orioles props for how the process has worked out for him and others.

"I think the best thing about Heston and being around him is that, he's got such a positive attitude all the time," Baumler said. "For someone kind of going through a struggle like him and maintaining such a good attitude around the whole thing, it's pretty cool to see. And it definitely sheds on everybody else. He's a really positive dude. Full of energy, full of laughter, and it's a really good thing to be around.

"I think the coolest part about being down here (in Sarasota) is that everybody is kind of looking for someone to hang out and kind of get away from thinking about the struggles of rehab. And that is the best part about the Orioles. There are no sour apples here. Everybody is super positive, and it's been really, really fun. You know, I was actually one of the first people to tell Kyle Corrick (O's minor league rehab coordinator). He asked, 'How are things going?' I'm like, 'You know what, it's going really fast.' He said I might be the first TJ rehab to ever say that. I think that is just attributing to the Orioles."