LeBlanc: "I want to make sure that I give them everything I have"

When did veteran starter Wade LeBlanc know that he was coming back to the Orioles?

Shortly after he left them.

LeBlanc didn't pitch after the first inning of an Aug. 23 game against the Red Sox at Camden Yards, his sixth start with his new team, due to a stress fracture in his left elbow. The Orioles put him on the 60-day injured list while recalling rookie Keegan Akin, but shortened the distance between them despite LeBlanc's return to Louisiana.

The Orioles kept checking on LeBlanc's recovery and assisted in raising money for his native Lake Charles community, which was ravaged by Category 4 Hurricane Laura and followed my multiple high-powered storms. LeBlanc and former infielder Jace Peterson set up a GoFundMe page to aid relief efforts. The Orioles worked hard to promote it.

Their involvement was a clear sign to LeBlanc that he hadn't really left their family. And the final confirmation arrived with last week's agreement on a minor league deal that pays $700,000 if he makes the club.

"On my end at least, it started when I got hurt," LeBlanc said. "The way they handled everything, the way they made sure I was taken care of, the way they worked with me in terms of being able to come home after the hurricanes and make sure my family was taken care of, the way that everybody from the top all the way to the PR department helped me with raising money and awareness for the hurricanes for my communities."

Division rivalries didn't matter. Some things are bigger than the sport.

"They got with the Yankees and got me an interview on the YES Network during one of their games, just to help bring awareness to what was going on down here," LeBlanc said.

"The Orioles, they were incredible in terms of helping me out with that stuff. And to pile on top of that, I've talked to guys who have gotten injured going into their free agent year, and when they headed to the offseason, the team they were with when they got hurt just completely shut them out. Didn't communicate, didn't make sure they were taken care of. The Orioles were the complete opposite.

"I talked to somebody from the Orioles once a week to check on me, check on my progress, my rehab, how everything was going, how I was feeling. I mean, they went above and beyond, and it's one of those things where that makes you want to be loyal to them and I want to make good on my original contract with them. I don't feel like I did that in any way, shape or form last year. So when they came back with interest to reunite, I mean, that's a no-brainer for me. I want to make sure that I give them everything I have and give them everything that they signed me up for last year."

The unfinished business, a term that has become a theme for LeBlanc, was created by his limited number of starts and his 8.06 ERA, 1.567 WHIP and minus-0.4 WAR in 22 1/3 innings.

"You say the words 'unfinished business,' I sent Hyder (manager Brandon Hyde) a text as soon as we agreed to terms and told him that I had some unfinished business that I had to see through over there if they would have me," he said. "That's kind of my mentality going forward and I have to make good on it."

The injury didn't require surgery. It didn't sneak up on LeBlanc, who turned 36 a couple of weeks before his final start. It didn't immediately sound any alarms.

He knew something wasn't quite right with his left arm, but he tried to pitch through it.

"The ligament was fine," he said. "I saw Dr. (Keith) Meister in Dallas and he actually told me that the ligament looks like that of a high school kid, so the ligaments, the tendons, all that stuff were in great shape. It was just a small stress fracture in the bone there and the only way to heal that is to rest it up. So I came home, let it rest and then got back into it.

"It's crazy. There was like a stiffness in the elbow, but it wasn't tender to the touch. There was just a stiffness in it, but when I would throw it would loosen up, and there was no pain, there was no discomfort when I threw. And this probably started around the bullpen after my third start (Aug. 6) against the Marlins. Two days after that, I threw a bullpen and it was kind of stiff, but it didn't bother me. There wasn't discomfort. It was just taking a little longer to get loose.

"It kind of stayed that way all the way through start No. 5. Then I'm throwing and I actually long-tossed the day before and I made up my mind that if it was any worse, I was going to tell them that I couldn't make that start against Boston. I long-tossed and it was like nothing was wrong, it felt 100 percent, so I went into the game the next day and in the bullpen it didn't feel right. It felt like there was something really off, but at that point we're probably 10 minutes from first pitch and I didn't want to do that to Esh (Thomas Eshelman). I didn't want to pull the plug and have him rush into starting against the Red Sox in a day game, so I decided to try to stick it out and get as far as I could.

LeBlanc faced only four batters before walking off the mound with assistant athletic trainer Mark Shires.

"On pitch No. 1 of the game, I realized the adrenaline wasn't going to help, and so I tried to get through the first inning and give Esh a clean start in the second and unfortunately it didn't work out that way. But that was the thought process behind it," he said.

"Never needed surgery, thank the Lord. They said if it were tissue or tendon or ligament, there would be some sort of surgery that needed to be done. But since it was just bone, it was something I would need to let rest and calcify."

LeBlanc was told it would be six to eight weeks before he could throw off a mound, but it took closer to 10 or 11 until he felt normal again.

"I think a lot of that had to do with, you have your body ready to go and then you just completely shut down," he said. "You sit for seven or eight weeks and do nothing, and there's got to be some rust that builds up that you have to throw through, and I think that's what happened."

LeBlanc is trying to rejoin a rotation that lost Alex Cobb in the trade with the Angels. A veteran leader removed from a group that is likely to include at least two rookies in Keegan Akin and Dean Kremer.

"I think Cobb did such a good job with that," LeBlanc said. "That type of leadership, that type of mentality where if you have questions, you know somebody who's been through it. There's no numbers that can calculate the importance of something like that."

Former Mariners teammate and 2010 Cy Young Award winner Félix Hernández signed his minor league deal one day after LeBlanc.

"We have Félix coming in, too, and he's done and seen everything, as well, so I think those are two guys, Félix and myself, who are going to be able to help those guys through a season," LeBlanc said.

"Spring training is spring training and then you get into that first month and it's adrenaline, it's exciting and you're ready to go, and then you kind of get into the routine of things and it becomes more of a mentality game. It becomes more of a mindset that gets you through those middle months before you start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel where adrenaline can pick up again.

"I think those are the times when having a veteran around is a huge help."