The Next Step

By Joe Conroy

Published: April 14, 2008

Mike Solbach was down. Really down. He had come so close to his dream of playing professional baseball. In mid-August that dream nearly vanished.

Solbach was drafted in the 19th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks in June, but contract talks slowed by August after the organization learned that the right-handed pitcher was not 100 percent healthy and likely needed surgery on his throwing arm.

The newly instituted Aug. 15 deadline to sign with a professional contract (or be forced to head back to college) was closing in and that dream was slowly fading away. Even if he headed back to Liberty University, Solbach — who was a redshirt junior last season — would be physically unable to pitch for the Flames for the 2008 season thanks to an elbow injury, effectively ending his college career.

While at his lowest point and staring the new deadline down, Solbach was able to turn a negative into a positive. The New York Yankees, a team that scouted Solbach extensively, was still interested and signed him after he was released by Arizona.

“I think the injury scared a lot of people off,” Solbach said, “but I’m glad other teams were still interested.”

A step back
The 2007 college season was not what Solbach had envisioned for himself. After being selected in the late rounds following the 2006 campaign, Solbach wanted to improve his status for the next draft.

But arm problems plagued him for the second time in as many years.

“Prior to the draft Michael pitched the last half of the Liberty season with a torn ulner collateral ligament [in his throwing elbow],” said Bill Rose, one of Solbach’s agents. “I [knew] some scouts in Florida that knew he had arm problems and they said they still liked him.”

The 6-foot-3, 200-pound hurler had already battled tendinitis in the same arm his sophomore year, and was shut down by the end of that season.

A visit to renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala. following that campaign showed “normal wear-and-tear,” Solbach said. Though there were also bone spurs visible, Andrews said he didn’t think surgery would not be necessary at that time.

Solbach, a three-time MVP in baseball at Heritage Christian School in Dale City, returned to Liberty as a junior after being drafted in the 48th round by Arizona in 2006. He returned to form, posting a 7-2 record to go with a 3.46 ERA, striking out 54 over 80.2 innings. They weren’t eye-popping numbers but Solbach pitched much of the season in serious pain.

“It got to the point where I almost couldn’t deal with it the last three or four games of the Liberty season,” Solbach said of the pain.

Typically throwing his two-seam fastball around the mid- to low-90’s, Solbach’s velocity was down in his last year with the Flames, taking a few innings to warm up, Rose said. He began most games throwing 86-87 miles per hour, working up to maybe 94 by the end of his appearance for that game.

Solbach was 1-1 in 22 innings with 16 strike outs in his final four starts, the most painful, including shutting out Winthrop over seven innings in the Big South Conference tournament semifinals, an 11-0 Flames win.

He knew that at least an examination of his arm would have to be included in any professional contract he’d sign in 2007. Though Rose said many were aware of Solbach’s situation, the Diamondbacks’ scouts were apparently not.

“When the Diamondbacks drafted him then they said they didn’t know, it amazed me,” Rose said.

Solbach said he struggled with the decision to tell Arizona that he was hurt, fearing the worst reaction: No contract offer. Several friends even told him to just get a deal in place and pitch until he needed surgery. But Rose said there was no discussion about whether to come forward or not.

“I think he felt he could have pitched on it,” Rose said. “You have to give him a lot of credit to pitch three-quarters of the year with a torn ligament. [But] he wasn’t going to have a choice in that matter.”

After they were informed of his condition, Arizona told Solbach (through his agents) they wouldn’t sign him, meaning he would not be playing professionally any time soon.

“There was a lot of dejection on his part,” Rose said. “The thought of going back to school and getting sur-gery — it was hard on him.”

A second chance
After hearing Arizona’s response, Rose and partners Mike Moye and Brian Doyle made phone calls to con-tacts in the other 29 major league organizations to gauge the interest in their young client.

There was good news.

Several teams were willing to sign Solbach and aid with repairing the injury, with the New York Yankees at the front of the line.

“The best thing for us was to get him in an organization that would pay for surgery and the balance of school costs,” Rose said. “If you look at teams like the Yankees, Boston and the [Los Angeles] Dodgers, a $5,000 [signing bonus] and $10,000 for school may not seem like a lot, but it is to teams with a smaller budget.

“To have an organization take him and pay for all that,” Rose continued, “he went from dejected to being elated.”

Under a new rule of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft instituted in 2007, drafted players have until Aug. 15 of the draft year to sign with the organization that selected them. As a junior in college, Solbach could sign with Arizona or choose to not sign and return to school.

But to become a free agent, the player has to sign a professional contract and then be released first in accor-dance with the new rule instituted in 2007.

With the Yankees willing to ink Solbach to a deal that would cover expenses related to surgery, rehab and the balance of his college education, Moye approached the Diamondbacks’ scouting director Tom Allison and negotiated a sign-and-release deal. The agreement meant Solbach would sign a contract with Arizona, who would then release him, making the pitcher available to any team interested.

“I have to give a lot of credit to Tom, being willing to sign him like that,” Rose said. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to sign with anyone else and college wasn’t an option” as Solbach would have missed the 2008 season with recovery and had already been redshirted at Liberty. The earliest he could have pitched in college would be 2009.

Solbach became an official member of the Yankee organization Aug. 7 when he signed a basic minor league deal negotiated by Rose.

“I told Michael [Solbach] that we’d done multiple, multi-year and multi-million dollar deals before,” Rose said, “but this might have been one of the hardest deals we’ve ever done.”

Three days after signing on the dotted line, Solbach’s right arm was operated on by Andrews in Pensacola, Fla.

“It was a relief [getting a contract],” Solbach said. “The process was difficult, I’ve never experienced anything like this before in my life.”

Andrews performed a UCL replacement, known more commonly as Tommy John surgery, a procedure named after the 1970’s and ‘80’s left-hander.

After injuring his UCL in 1974, John had a tendon from his forearm removed and used to stabilize the elbow joint by recreating the damaged ligament. Los Angeles surgeon Frank Jobe performed the operation on the then Dodger. Despite the initial belief that John’s career was over with the surgery, John returned to the mound in 1976 and continued to pitch until 1989.

Andrews is considered the leading expert in Tommy John surgery — an operation he has virtually perfected, performing it more than 2,500 times — and has around a 90 percent success rate.

The Yankees started a recent trend of taking on free agent pitchers that need Tommy John surgery and they’re one of the few organizations that can afford to do so.

New York signed starter John Lieber to a two-year deal in 2003 and reliever Octavio Dotel to a one-year contract in 2005 knowing ahead of time that each needed the elbow surgery and, later, rehab. Both would eventually pitch for the Yankees.

But the willingness to take a risk on a player with this diagnosis has not been limited to those who have already pitched in the major leagues. Last spring, in the same draft that saw Solbach go to the Diamondbacks for the second straight year, the Yankees selected pitcher Andrew Brackman with their first choice, the 30th overall.

Brackman, a 6-foot-10 righty from North Carolina State, was also in need of Tommy John surgery heading into the draft but New York still took the gamble, eventually signing him to a four-year, $4.5 million contract.

“It didn’t phase them in the least,” Rose said.

The road to recovery
Following his operation, Solbach stayed in Tampa until November when he returned to Liberty to begin his rehab.

Solbach worked with Flames athletic trainer Scott Lawrenson and strength and conditioning coach Shane Miller lifting weights and running during the fall semester and into December before beginning the initial stages of his throwing program.

“It feels good, no pain and no setbacks,” Solbach said recently.

He was even in Tampa for the Yankees’ spring training, mingling with the big league players.

Now at extended spring training, Solbach is on Single-A Charleston’s roster, but will likely be unavailable to pitch in a game until sometime in July he has been told. In the meantime, he continues his running and weightlifting routines to keep his body in shape and strengthen his arm.

“He is absolutely on time with his recovery,” Rose said last week, “maybe a little ahead of schedule.”

Solbach said he is set to throw off a bullpen mound today, the first time since his surgery.

“We’ve gotten great reports from the Yankees trainers on his work ethic and about his work outs,” Rose said. “I think that’s why he’s going to be successful — he’s so willing to work hard for this.

“He said his arm has never felt better,” Rose added. “He’s got a great pitcher’s body and can still fill out and add another 30 pounds or so.”

Potomac Nationals’ pitching coach Randy Tomlin worked with Solbach for three years when Tomlin held the same position at Liberty and has kept in touch with his former pupil since.

“I think [signing] Mike is going to be a deal — he’s going to open some eyes with the Yankees,” Tomlin said. “They see his potential and I think he’s got great potential.”

Rose said that had Solbach been 100 percent healthy he would have been a top 10 round choice in 2007 and was projected as an early pick in 2006 by scouts.

Tomlin said before the 2007 draft that Solbach could be a great addition for any professional pitching staff, owning a nasty two-seamer, a curveball and developing a changeup as a third pitch before leaving Liberty.

“When you put hitters with wood bats against him, he’ll be a groundball machine — he’ll break a lot of bats,” Tomlin said last June. “When you can throw 90 to 94 and your fastball moves about a foot, it makes him tough to hit.”

From the first feeling of jubilation in being drafted for a second time to the frightening thought of being completely out of baseball and then on the road to being part of one of baseball’s most storied organization, it’s been a rollercoaster ride for Solbach.

Despite the emotional ups and downs, Solbach said he wouldn’t change a thing, finally achieving his dream.

“I’m glad it worked out the way it did,” he said. “I get to stay on East Coast and I’m with the Yankees — what else could you want?”