Cavalli throwing first bullpen since bout with "dead arm"

MIAMI – Cade Cavalli last stepped on a mound on June 21 with High-A Wilmington. It was the third – and last – of his official rehab starts as he continued his recovery from last year’s Tommy John surgery. And it was the most encouraging of his rehab outings to date: He pitched three scoreless, hitless innings.

The initial target date for his major league return was in late June/early July, which was established after his March 2023 surgery. It was approaching and there was legitimate hope he would rejoin the Nationals rotation for the second half of the season.

But that target date and Cavalli’s whole rehab process was shaken up by a subsequent case of the flu and a period in which he experienced “dead arm” when he threw a ball.

“We shot for a date and we tried everything possible to get there. And sometimes the arm just doesn't respond like we wanted it to,” said Cavalli, who once again met the Nats in Miami from the team’s spring training facility in West Palm Beach, where he was rehabbing. “It wasn't anything horrible. Good news is we're still healthy. Just had to slow it down a little bit. It's part of the TJ recovery, as you know. It's 15 to 18 months for a reason, so we're just taking it slow and easy. Making sure that it's right and that it's the right time when I get back, so that we don't have to have another setback, hopefully.”

Setbacks happen in long rehab processes. Cavalli and the Nats just didn’t expect him to have two of them in quick succession when he was sick and then felt like he wasn’t throwing as well as he should have at that point in the rehab.

“It's a weird thing where you feel like it should feel healthy and the ball should be coming out a little different,” Cavalli said of the “dead arm” sensation he experienced. “It's a weird thing that you can't really explain. But I'm glad that we shut it down early enough that nothing worse happened, and we'll be able to get back after it, hopefully in the near future.”

Cavalli will get back after it today as he steps on a mound for the first time since that June 21 outing with Wilmington. He’ll throw his first bullpen session since restarting his rehab process at loanDepot park, with manager Davey Martinez, pitching coach Jim Hickey and the Nats medical staff watching closely as he throws 20-25 pitches, all fastballs.

Although this is, yet again, an important step for the right-hander to take, he is running out of time to step back onto a mound in a game setting. The Single-A and High-A seasons come to a close after this week. Double-A Harrisburg only has two weeks remaining and Triple-A Rochester has three.

The clock is ticking and it seems unlikely Cavalli will pitch in an actual game again this year.

“I'd like to see him maybe throw somewhere,” Martinez said. “Whether it's the minor league or something, just get on the mound and face hitters. Hopefully, we get to that point. If we don't, we still have months to progress him and get him ready for spring training.”

“I think that's something we'll just assess as this responds,” Cavalli said. “Everything has to respond right. So we're just gonna assess it and there's no rush right now. That's it.”

As Cavalli has always mentioned during this extended rehab process, he enjoys the time he can spend around the team. While his physical rehab is sometimes out of his control (i.e. getting sick and experiencing “dead arm”), he has learned the mental aspect of it is just as important and challenging.

“It's tough. I want to be out there competing with these guys,” he said. “It's been awesome being able to hang around them the last two and a half, three months. That made it a lot better. Just keep growing the relationships and stuff. So as I was growing the relationships, there's, obviously, more want to get out there with these guys and try to help win some ballgames and just go out there and do what we love.

“And whenever your body's not responding how you want it to, it can affect you mentally. And there were some tough days, for sure, going to the yard where I wanted to be doing something else and going in for soft tissue and a workout. I wanted to go compete. But just like life, you got to roll with the punches. Control what you can control. And I really do believe that if we keep doing the little things right, that our time will come. It'll be great when it does happen, it'll be the perfect time. And I just trust God's plan that he has set out for me, and that's the way we're rolling with it.”

“For me, it's just mentally staying focused on what he's trying to accomplish,” Martinez said. “That's the biggest thing. Because he could get down, which he was a little bit because he was doing so well. But that's part of the rehab process. Some guys come out of it great. Some guys need a little bit more time. I think he's going to be really fine. I really do. I saw him come out earlier and throw the ball really well. We got to get him back to that. And then it's the mental grind. Like telling yourself, ‘Hey, I'm over it. It's time to compete. It's time to get on the mound. It's time to go.’ And once we get him there, we can help him through that process.”