The bulky brace attached to Craig Stammen’s right arm came with a set of instructions. Don’t move your wrist, doctors told him. Don’t grab anything with your right hand, no matter how light. It’s turned the right-handed Washington Nationals reliever into a temporary lefty, forcing him to text, drive, eat, type and use the remote control all with his off-hand.
“I’m almost getting good at it,” Stammen said with a smile. “There’s not a pile of food on the floor when I’m done eating anymore.”
The brace has altered Stammen’s day-to-day life, and the surgically-repaired flexor tendon that it protects has changed his role in Washington this season. Stammen is no longer the Nationals’ unflappable swingman, jogging in from the bullpen to throw any number of pitches at any point in any game, often with overshadowed success. For the rest of this season, he is more coach than player, a support system for a young bullpen filled with players still trying to adjust to relieving at the big-league level.
“He’s just kind of like an advisor right now,” closer Drew Storen said. “A bullpen advisor, I guess, is kind of what we call him.”
It’s an apt role for one of the game’s most consistent pitchers. From 2012 to 2014, no major-league reliever threw more innings than Stammen. He posted a 2.93 ERA over 242 2/3 innings in that three-year span, never landing on the disabled list and evolving from a long-relief lynchpin to a late-innings option in big situations. The 31-year-old allowed only two hits in five appearances this season, at least two of which came after the tendon in his arm had torn.
Season-ending surgery gave Stammen an opportunity to step away from the team for a while, or maybe even take a summer vacation. Instead, he is at Nationals Park before and during every home game, watching the action from the dugout or on one of the flat-screen TVs in the clubhouse.
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“This is all I really know. I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing,” Stammen said. “I’ve invested with them for the past six years and tried to win a championship with them, and this is my way of sticking around, and hopefully winning a championship with these guys.”
Stammen enjoys the clubhouse atmosphere and spending time with teammates, but his presence also has a tangible effect. Five members of Washington’s bullpen were in the minor leagues within the past two years, and many of them are still adjusting to their roles at the big league level. Stammen serves as a sounding board for those players, a source of both advice and reassurance.
“Unfortunately he had a setback, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not a teammate,” manager Matt Williams said. “It’s important for him, it’s important for us, to have him here and be present in our clubhouse. It’s no fun when you can’t play, but he’s a pro and he understands that it’s important for him to be here and talk with the guys, mingle, be on the bench, do the things that he’s doing.”
Even when the Nationals are on the road, Stammen is sitting on his couch at home, following every pitch. Watching the games on television has forced him to view them from a different angle, and he’s picked up on things he might not have noticed from the bullpen. More than once, Stammen said he has sent a text to pitching coach Steve McCatty or another member of the coaching staff, pointing out a potential pattern or something the Nationals can exploit.
It’s a strange feeling, he said, watching road games after being present for six years of them.
“It’s a lot of yelling at Bob [Carpenter] and F.P. [Santangelo] on TV,” Stammen said, laughing. “No, mostly just watching pitch sequences and trying to pitch along with the pitchers, and hit along with the hitters. If I see something that pops out, send a quick text or whatever and say, ’Hey, check this out, see what you think.’ Little stuff like that, but nothing major.”
For all the injuries and uncertainty in Washington’s bullpen early this season, it will enter Friday’s series-opener against the Philadelphia Phillies with a 3.16 ERA, which ranks 10th in the majors. The starting rotation has a collective ERA of 4.05, which ranks 16th.
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Stammen believes the team’s young group of relievers will only improve as the season winds on and roles are solidified. And every day, he moves one step closer to rejoining them in 2016. The brace comes off in roughly 10 days, with a lengthy rehabilitation process to follow.
As Stammen retrains his arm with hopes of being ready for the start of next season, he will continue to encourage or advise his younger teammates, regardless of whether those sentiments come from the clubhouse or his couch. Even when injured, he’s always happy to fill an important role on the team, whatever that role may be.
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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