Anthony Susac approached a gaggle of reporters with wires protruding from the right sleeve of his red Arizona baseball jersey. He then revealed the scar from his December 2020 elbow surgery.
Post-performance treatment and career-saving medical procedures are commonplace for pitchers these days. But recovery is far from routine — especially for players with elite talent and MLB aspirations.
It has taken Susac, a UA freshman, about 16 months to feel fully comfortable with his arm and mechanics following a relatively new surgery called “UCL primary repair with internal brace.” Susac had a partially torn UCL, so he didn’t need a complete Tommy John reconstruction. The recovery time is shorter. But it’s still a process.
Lately, Susac has looked like the prospect he was touted to be. He has a 2.77 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP in his past three appearances, including a pair of five-inning starts last week in which he threw a total of 122 pitches.
Susac has worked with pitching coach Dave Lawn to make his motion more repeatable. The right-hander also has taken advantage of the opportunities he has received.
“We’ve started to clean it up,” Susac said after earning the win in Arizona’s 8-2 victory over Nevada on Sunday. “Just getting on the mound more often helps, throwing more often. In order to get better at pitching, you gotta practice pitching.”
Arizona, understandably, took a cautious approach at first with Susac, the cousin of UA catcher Daniel Susac. Lawn picked his spots with Anthony, who has made 11 appearances, including five starts.
“We always have been very careful with him,” said UA coach Chip Hale, whose team hosts Grand Canyon on Tuesday. “We babied him a little bit in the fall for sure. And then this spring, he hasn’t really gotten the chance to show his stuff.
“His velocity is way up from where it was a month ago. He’s feeling it.”
Susac had no issues getting used to his catcher. By Anthony’s estimation, “99% of pitches I’ve ever thrown on a mound” have been to Daniel. No one knows Anthony’s game better than his cousin.
Susac
“I don’t think there’s a better hitter in the country than Daniel Susac vs. me,” Anthony Susac said. “He knows exactly what’s coming every single pitch.
“He also knows what pitch I want to throw. We’d have these times, especially in high school, where I’d throw maybe 50 pitches deep into a game, hadn’t thrown a single changeup, and I’d be sitting there going, ‘Ooh, changeup would be a good pitch right here.’ And Daniel throws down a changeup. We just have that connection.”
The Susac cousins have resumed using what Anthony called their “verbal sign system” in their native Croatian. Everyone calls Anthony “Tonko,” which is basically Anthony or Tony in Croatian. The Susacs had a babysitter who called Anthony “Tonko,” and the nickname stuck.
Whether Susac remains part of the rotation this season remains to be seen. He won’t start against GCU, which is Arizona’s final non-conference opponent. He could be needed as a starter in the inaugural Pac-12 Tournament if the Wildcats advance deep into it.
Susac has been used out of the bullpen six times this year, but that requires some planning. He has an usually long pregame routine that lasts about 1 hour, 50 minutes.
If he continues to progress, Susac should have no trouble earning a weekend starting spot next season in what could be his final year at Arizona. Perfect Game rated Susac as the 146th-best high school prospect for the 2021 MLB draft. He makes the new cutoff for eligibility for the ’23 draft by one day. But that’s a long way off, and Susac knows he has a lot of work to do.
“You gotta pitch good,” he said, “in order for that to even be a factor.”
‘A little bit of everything’
Left-hander Holden Christian began the season as Arizona’s closer. He no longer holds that job, having been supplanted by righty Trevor Long.
Christian has suffered through bouts of wildness. He has issued 18 walks, hit seven batters and thrown nine wild pitches in 23 1/3 innings. The transfer’s ERA was 2.57 through April 2. It’s now 4.24.
Christian worked around a one-out hit batter to pitch a scoreless seventh inning Sunday. He then loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth via two walks and a hit batter. He also threw a wild pitch. Some of his misses were nowhere close to the plate.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” Hale said. “The first inning he threw beautiful. He went back out there and hit a guy, and it just went south from there.
“But I still believe he’s gonna be a big part of that bullpen if we’re gonna be a good team. So we’re gonna keep working with him. We’ve seen some positives. Just need to get some consistency.”
Injury updates
Hale said right-handed reliever Chris Barraza, who had to exit Friday’s game after only three pitches because of arm tightness, “is feeling better.”
“I don’t know if he’ll be available to pitch Tuesday,” Hale said. “But it’s getting there.”
Barraza, a Sahuarita High School product who transferred to Arizona from New Mexico State, is 1-0 with a 3.24 ERA.
Hale said right-hander Dawson Netz has more of a “long road” to get back into the mix. Netz has made seven starts this season but has pitched only once since March 27 — a two-inning outing on April 12 — after suffering an arm injury.
“Structurally he’s fine,” Hale said. “But he’s just kind of started the whole throwing process over again.”
Hale said the best-case scenario for Netz would be to return against Oregon State (May 13-15) or Oregon (May 19-21). He likely would pitch out of the bullpen. He was extremely effective as a reliever down the stretch last season.
Inside pitch
Despite a 4-1 week, Arizona (32-14, 13-8 Pac-12) remained outside the Top 25s released by Baseball America and D1Baseball.com on Monday. Stanford — which is 25-14, 12-9, and was swept by Arizona — is ranked 10th and 11th by those publications.
Arizona is tied with Oregon for third place in the Pac-12. Oregon State is in first place at 15-6. UCLA is second at 14-7. Arizona visits last-place USC (6-15) this weekend. Oregon State hosts Oregon. UCLA visits Washington (8-16).
The latest national RPI rankings for the Pac-12 contenders: Oregon State 2, Oregon 18, Stanford 24, Arizona 36, UCLA 43.
The Wildcats have turned 45 double plays, the most in the Pac-12 and fourth most in the nation. Shortstop Nik McClaughry leads the league with 145 assists.
Daniel Susac leads the Pac-12 with 73 hits. Teammate Tanner O’Tremba is second with 70. O’Tremba leads the conference with a .376 batting average. Chase Davis ranks second in home runs (13).
Lefty Eric Orloff (1-1, 4.21) will start for Arizona in Tuesday night’s game. Right-hander Carter Young (1-3, 4.79) will go for Grand Canyon.
All remaining regular-season UA games will be broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.
