"I love to suffer, as long as I’m chasing my goal,” Ty Adcock’s wild and long ride to the majors
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – Relief pitcher Ty Adcock hasn’t had an easy road to the big leagues, and it certainly hasn’t been a conventional one for the Elon university pitcher. With the Seattle Mariners getting hit with the injury bug throughout their pitching staff, Adcock was called upon on June 12th to take the roster spot of right-handed reliever Penn Murfee, who had re-aggravated an elbow injury that he had just come off the injured list for. Now up with the club that drafted him back in 2019, Adcock is making the most of his opportunity after a roller coaster journey to his MLB debut.
“It was a lot, honestly. I’m gonna have a ton of adrenaline just from the stands, the big scale of everything here. It’s gonna pump you up a lot. You definitely hop on the mound, I know I got my family in the stands, try not to look at them or anything like that. Just trying to stay down, but you can’t compare or create that same kind of adrenaline that you get on this field compared to like Arkansas or anything like that.”
Seattle Mariners relief pitcher Ty Adcock plays catch ahead of the Mariners game against the Miami Marlins on June 14th, 2022 (Photo by Chris Lu)
The Elon to Seattle pipeline
In recent memory, there are three connections between Elon University and the Seattle Mariners organization, with two of them being pitchers that are currently at the big-league level. While Adcock has already been mentioned, starting pitcher George Kirby and former coach Sean McGrath are the other members of the Elon -> Mariners club that has been strong for Seattle. McGrath is now with the Iowa Hawkeyes baseball team, serving as their assistant coach, but previously spent time with the Modesto Nuts, Everett Aquasox, and Arkansas Travelers in the Mariners minor league system. While he isn’t in it now, McGrath’s impact on Adcock is apparent and something that the organization notes for their growth and development to get them to this point.
“That was awesome, we went to school together a few years at Elon. Seen him struggle through his injuries and see his perseverance to come back, that was awesome. I was really happy for him. To see him and his family here, pretty freaking cool that we’re both up here doing our thing. ”
Tommy John stunts the timeline
The two words “Tommy John” are a nightmare for any baseball fan, player, or team, let alone a pitcher who’s facing the scary surgery that will take you out for anywhere from 12-16 months. Adcock had to deal with the dreaded surgery as the third sort of major hurdle that he’s faced in his young career, having dealt with a shoulder issue in 2019 and then the COVID Pandemic in 2020 reaching a height. In college at Elon, Adcock was a two-way player, spending time as a right fielder while pitching as well. While Adcock succeeded in being a quality player on both ends, it caused enough wear and tear on his right shoulder which required surgery, taking him out of the short season campaign in 2019 after being drafted by the Mariners.
“I think – this is me personally – I think my shoulder issues and COVID happening and then me trying to build back up a little bit too quickly may have caused some elbow issues... I was doing a bunch of throwing there and I think I tried to ramp it up a little bit too quickly. And I think it might have hurt me a little bit.”
Following the missed short season campaign, obviously the COVID-19 Pandemic wiped out any real sort of season for anybody, making it two straight years where Adcock wasn’t able to continue his development and improvement with the resources he’d had throughout his career, potentially stunting his growth and providing a massive speed bump on his path to the MLB. Following those big bumps, Adcock was assigned to the Mariners AA affiliate, the Arkansas Travelers, in a solid jump in his career. Then, things hit the fan once again. Adcock needed Tommy John Surgery, something that could’ve potentially ended his playing career.
“As soon as they got word of it, they immediately booked flights. They got here at like 9 o’clock in the morning. So, they were here just like touring the city, while I’m in Dallas just hanging out.”
“You’re gonna have to meet me in Seattle tomorrow”
Following the three major daggers to his potential furthered playing career, Adcock continued to push ahead and ensure that he would fulfill his dream of playing in the Major Leagues. Perhaps, though, he didn’t quite envision it looking like this, being called up to the bigs in the month of June on an off-day with his current club, the Travelers. Adcock got the call and had to let his wife and parents know that they had to meet him in Seattle, Washington. They didn’t believe him at first, requiring extra assurance that this was actually happening and that he was making the jump to the major leagues. Finally, after a group facetime call with his wife and parents, they were all convinced and went to work to get the next ticket that they could to Seattle from North Carolina, where he was born.
“It was a little hectic, chaotic. I got the call from my skipper in Arkansas two days ago, so I was trying to get everything packed up, get ready to go. Took a flight out of there pretty early and got to Dallas, and the next plane wasn’t there, it hadn’t shown up yet. I didn’t actually know the approximate time to get here, so just keeping the guys updated here, letting them know when I was gonna get here. It was like a two-and-a-half-hour delay. Getting here at like four or 3:30, bags take a little bit. Got here around four, trying to get settled in really quickly, and I knew I had to get on the field and play some catch, get ready for the night. I knew I was gonna be getting activated. I got here, met the clubbies and everything, trying to meet the skipper, just get acquainted with everyone. As soon as I touch based with everyone, I knew I had to get ready, got in the tubs, heated up a little bit, start moving around, and then do everything I need to do in there. Came out here, played some catch. Once I was ready to go, went over to the bullpen just to touch the slope a little bit. Make sure I had everything ready. Everything was gonna get out of hand and from then on, I was just trying to kind of calm myself down a little bit because everything had been so sped up in the past day or so. I knew I was probably going to be in there, if we were in a good situation for me. Went out there, honestly, tell people, I felt comfortable. It didn’t feel too foreign on the mound for me. I was just thinking, because I tried to oversimplify things on the mound with my stuff. I tried to trust my pitches and everything, I got in it just to attack the hitter. Then, whatever happens after the ball leaves my hand, it happens. You can’t you can’t control it after that.”