Ben Brown took the mound yesterday for a couple innings in his spring debut, the first time he’d pitched competitively in a game since he was shut down last summer with what wound up being a pretty mysterious neck injury. His pitches more or less looked normal, and he even busted out his changeup a couple times. It was great to see him back.
But a question that probably nags at the back of your mind: is the mysterious neck issue at risk for popping up again at any time? Well, I can’t answer that with any certainty – not a doctor, not privy to all the medicals, so on and so forth – but it doesn’t sound like the Cubs or Brown are specifically concerned about it now that we know what was going on.
Sahadev Sharma reports in The Athletic the most complete description of the injury issue that I’ve seen. It’s a really good read not only on what Brown was going through, but also on his future with the organization (the belief is that he can succeed as a two-pitch starter, but he is working to get that changeup to consistently usable). Suffice to say, the hopes are still very high, even if Brown opens the season staying stretched out in the Triple-A Iowa rotation.
As for the injury, it turns out it was an osteoma – a benign bone tumor, growing off of another bone – that was irritating his neck when he’d pitch.* Googling suggests they are not necessarily a serial or recurrent issue, are kinda flukey, and don’t necessarily present future concerns (depending on what sparked the new growth in the first place). Moreover, per The Athletic article, in Brown’s case, the doctor indicated it would resolve of its own volition in a matter of months, which is what in fact did happen. It just required waiting.
*(That seems to explain, by the way, why the issue was at times described as a ‘stress reaction’ and then that was taken back, and then offered again, and then taken back. A stress reaction is a precursor to a stress fracture, and is basically a constant irritation of a bone area. Since this seems to be kind of like a bone irritation, you could see why lay folks were trying to figure out the best way to describe it in sports injury terms.)
The best news here, of course, is that Brown is completely past the issue now, and pitching competitively in games without concern. The second best news is that the injury was never related to anything in his arm, elbow, shoulder, etc. So it’s not as if this is a guy coming back from arm surgery or whatever – it’s more like a guy coming back from a long layoff, but who was able to have a pretty normal offseason.
And we can’t forget that the guy we saw in the big leagues last year was very, very good. If Brown is that guy again this year – a power righty with an over-the-top delivery and strikeouts aplenty – it could change the look of the rotation.
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