Chris Bassitt spent months living with a strange split in his routine: day-to-day life felt fine, flat-ground throwing felt fine, but the mound told a different story.
That gap is what eventually pushed the Orioles right-hander into a procedure to remove a bone spur in his back, a move that ended a long stretch of trying to pitch through something that kept showing up every fifth day and nowhere else.
Bassitt said the issue first looked and felt like something much simpler. He believed he was dealing with an oblique strain, then managed the discomfort for nearly two months while hoping he could keep going. Instead, the problem kept interfering with his movement on the mound and started to show up in his results.
His 12 appearances before landing on the injured list on June 8 produced a 5.27 ERA, well above his 3.71 career mark. Bassitt has made clear he sees that downturn as tied to the bone spur affecting his mechanics.
“That was the worst thing. I felt great on a day-to-day basis,” Bassitt said.
“I felt great throwing on a flat surface. It was literally just throwing on the mound that created the issues that I had.”
He described the pain at first as side tightness and stiffness, something that seemed like a random oblique strain. But the issue never really went away, and eventually it reached the point where the Orioles and Bassitt had to stop trying to work around it.
“It just felt like a random oblique strain,” Bassitt said. “Just like side tightness, side stiffness, pain through my oblique. And then all of a sudden it just got to a point where it was like, ‘We can’t work through this.'”
The procedure itself, Bassitt said, was straightforward. His understanding is that surgeons removed the bone spur, and now the focus is less on a drawn-out rehab and more on letting the incision heal before he starts building back up in a throwing program.
For Bassitt, the surgery wasn’t only about getting rid of discomfort. It was about admitting the injury was affecting what he was able to give the team.
“As long as the results were there, I would still have been throwing,” Bassitt said. “But the reality is the results weren’t there.
That bone spur was compromising my movement. It was compromising my right side.
It was one of those things where I know I’m not doing well for the team. I’m not helping anybody out when I’m on the field.
We’ve got to get this fixed.”
Even while he’s been sidelined, Bassitt hasn’t stepped away from the game. The 37-year-old has stayed involved through film study, data work and digging into the Orioles’ opponents. He’s spent a lot of time breaking down hitters, studying defensive positioning and using the perspective that comes with nearly a decade in the majors.
“I understand their defensive stuff, and I understand what they’re going through,” Bassitt said. “I can grade them, so to speak, [on] what they’re doing.”
The biggest adjustment, then, hasn’t been about staying occupied. It’s been about finding ways to contribute while waiting for the chance to get back on the mound.
His return date will depend on how his body responds as he moves through the throwing progression. But Bassitt said the procedure gave him confidence that the source of the problem has finally been addressed.
After spending much of the first half trying to pitch through something he couldn’t escape, he can now rebuild with a cleaner target in mind - and without wondering whether the next start will bring the same pain that forced him out in the first place.
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