Just a few weeks ago, Frank Cairone’s future in baseball was put on hold in the most frightening way imaginable. The 18-year-old Brewers left-handed pitching prospect was involved in a head-on collision in his home state of New Jersey after another vehicle ran a stop sign. He was airlifted to a nearby hospital with serious injuries-an abrupt and terrifying detour for a young arm just beginning his professional journey.
But now, there’s a flicker of light. On Tuesday, Cairone posted a video showing himself lightly tossing a baseball against a wall.
It’s not much in terms of workload, but symbolically, it’s huge. For someone who was in a hospital bed not long ago, just gripping a baseball again is a milestone.
The road to recovery is still long, and there’s no clear timeline for when he might return to full baseball activity, but this is the kind of encouraging sign that gives both fans and the organization something to rally around.
Details about the extent of Cairone’s injuries haven’t been made public, and understandably so. The Brewers released a statement shortly after the accident, but since then, updates have been scarce.
For now, it’s about patience and progress. With pitchers and catchers set to report to spring training next week at American Family Fields of Phoenix, there’s no expectation that Cairone will be joining them right away.
His arrival will depend entirely on how his recovery continues to unfold.
The Brewers selected Cairone with the 68th overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, pulling him from Delsea Regional High School in New Jersey and signing him away from a Coastal Carolina commitment with a $1.1 million bonus. It was a clear statement of belief in his potential. He fits the mold of the kind of arms Milwaukee has been stockpiling in recent years-young, projectable, and full of upside.
Once he’s cleared to return to the mound, the plan is for Cairone to make his professional debut in the Arizona Complex League before potentially moving on to Low-A with the Wilson Warbirds. But that’s down the line. Right now, the focus is on getting healthy, one toss at a time.
For a player who just a few weeks ago was facing far bigger concerns than pitch sequencing or velocity, that simple game of catch is a powerful reminder: baseball can wait-but it’s still there, waiting for him.