Tristan Beck is feeling good. And that's what matters most
Photo Credit: Kirk Nawrotzky | Richmond Flying Squirrels
“We got all sorts of stuff, man. We would do conditioning competitions… we’re watching all sorts of sports…You know it’s just anything. You’re looking for a little edge to get in there and compete. We would even have crossword competitions in the morning. There’d be a group of us who would do the crossword, and whoever finished first would be the winner that day.”
Asked what the hardest part of a summer spent rehabbing at the Giants’ Scottsdale complex was, Tristan Beck didn’t think about the Arizona heat, or the physical pain and discomfort of rehabbing his back. What bothered him — and the other Giants’ prospects who were rehabbing injuries alongside him — most, he told me, was the lack of competition. “How do we keep the competitive spirit flowing day in and day out, making sure that the months over the summer don’t just drag and drag.”
It wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. Beck was the opening night starter for the Richmond Flying Squirrels in 2021. He was ranked the Giants’ #12 prospect going into the season, and was a name that came up whenever the topic turned to players who might be able to help the 2021 Giants. When I spoke with Baseball America’s Josh Norris that winter, Beck was the first name he thought of when I asked him about the Giants’ potential starting pitcher depth — ahead of his Richmond rotation mates Sean Hjelle and Sam Long.
Long spent most of the year ping ponging back and forth between San Francisco and Sacramento, pitching meaningful games in a pennant race. Hjelle performed well enough to earn an inclusion on the 40-man roster after the year was over. Beck, by contrast, threw just 37 innings on the year, with about a third of them coming in the rookie complex, and finished the year back in Low A San Jose.
Early on in 2021, it was apparent to Beck that things didn’t feel quite right. Coming off the canceled season of 2020, Beck thought at first it was normal soreness that he could work his way through. “It’s a long season, everyone’s got stuff that’s bugging them.” But on their first road trip, he woke up one morning with a searing pain — what would ultimately be diagnosed as sciatica. “That’s when I knew something was really wrong.”
He pitched what would be his last game for Richmond on May 21 — just over two weeks into the season. On June 9, he went onto the IL for a rehab that would take most of the summer. “It was definitely a tough stretch there. We were kind of chasing down trying to figure out exactly what was going on…Once we identified it, it really wasn’t too [difficult] of a rehab process, but I had lost enough time where I had to build my arm all the way back up, which is really about a six week process.” He wouldn’t get into another official game until August 14 in the rookie league — nearly a full three months after his last outing as a Squirrel.
What kept Beck’s spirit up during that long, frustrating stretch was the camaraderie he felt with the others in a similar position — players like Cole Waites, who had undergone knee surgery near the end of spring training, or Nick Swiney who suffered an opening week concussion, Hunter Bishop, who suffered a shoulder injury in the season’s opening days, Blake Rivera, Nick Morreale, and so many others who spent all or part of the year at the Scottsdale complex. “Unfortunately, that’s the reality of playing baseball is there’s always going to be guys who are in Scottsdale rehabbing some long term injuries.” Along with the Giants’ training and development staff who watched over their every activity, it was that group of players who became their own support group: Team Rehab!
“We’re all kind of chasing the same goals. We’re doing different things, but we’re all working — really competing — to get healthy as quickly as we can, and get back. We support each other. As soon as somebody has their first mound session coming off an injury, everybody watches and everybody’s in there cheering them on. And the same thing with your first games and even your first catch play, for guys who have some arm injuries. It’s really just a group effort down in rehab…So really, that’s the thing that kept me going and really kept me sharp.”
By the time Beck had completed rehab and the process of building his arm strength back up, most of the season was behind him. But he was able to get in two appearances in San Jose, and take part in the experience of the team winning a championship. Mostly, he was just happy to feel like himself again — and happy to be able to focus on his pitching game, not just his health. “I really felt early in the year, I was almost working on my body more than I was working on my pitching game, you know, my mechanics, and my stuff and my pitches. And that’s a tough place to be, just feeling like a majority of your effort is going into just feeling like you’re physically able to go play the game as opposed to feeling great. And now we can get into: how am I going to shape my curveball today? How am I going to attack this lineup?” By the time Beck was finishing the year in San Jose, he transitioned back to a pitcher who could put his focus on the quality of his pitching.
Though Beck suffered back injuries in college as well, the sciatica was a completely separate issue. “It was my first time dealing with nervous system stuff…and nerves can be really finicky. For those people who haven’t had that before, it’s a unique feeling, and it can be difficult to describe, which really led into what took us a while to diagnose it.” Beck spent the winter focusing on gaining strength in his lower half and doing exercises that would help keep the sciatica at bay.
And, of course, with renewed health, he was also able to focus on his craft. “Last year I was unhappy with how my slider looked. I made some pretty good steps in my last two, three weeks in San Jose. But the offseason was really dedicated to getting the slider into a real weapon, as opposed to just a fourth pitch that [hitters] can kind of disregard. And then getting the curveball back. I felt really strong with the fastball/changeup combination last year, but at times kind of lost the curveball.”
Tonight, for the second season in a row, Beck takes the mound for Richmond’s home opener, going up against the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Double A affiliate, the Altoona Curve. He’s hoping to keep the momentum building from a strong spring camp in Scottsdale and have the kind of success in Richmond (and maybe higher levels) that he was looking for last year. Ultimately, though, he knows the most important aspect of his season will be staying healthy and on the field. “That is exactly right. Just have a full, healthy season, leave the physical worries in the past and worry about pitching, worry about getting better at my craft. It’s out of my hands from there. That’s all I can do.”
To hear more from Tristan Beck, listen to this week’s There R Giants podcast:
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