Lucas Gilbreath pushed through “brutal” rehab to pitch for Rockies again

There were butterflies the size of pterodactyls fluttering around Lucas Gilbreath’s tummy when he took the mound at Coors Field on Friday night.

That was a good thing.

“It was awesome,” the Rockies lefty reliever said. “It’s the closest thing I’ve had since my debut, honestly. It almost felt like a second debut.”

Understandably so. Because of elbow and shoulder injuries, Gilbreath, 28, had not pitched in nearly two years before he took the mound in the seventh inning of Colorado’s 7-3 win over the Padres. Gilbreath got Luis Arraez to fly out to deep right field and induced Jurickson Profar to ground out weakly to first base.

But Glibreath walked Jake Cronenworth, prompting manager Bud Black to lift him. The lefty was miffed, not about getting the hook, but about walking Profar.

Black didn’t like the walk either, but he was thrilled to see Gilbreath pitching in the majors again.

“It was good to see ‘Gilly’ back,” Black said. “The fastball was what he’s been throwing, velocity-wise, in his rehab games — 91 to 93 (mph). The delivery looked good and I thought he threw some good sliders.

“But I don’t think he’s all the way back to where he was two years ago when he burst onto the scene. We might not see his best stuff until next year, but he’s throwing the ball well enough to be here.”

Before the injuries, Gilbreath wrote a storybook story, with a local-boy-makes-good theme.

For 28 games, from May 14 through July 22, 2022, the lefty reliever posted a 0.64 ERA and held hitters to a .189 average. The Colorado native and graduate of Legacy High School had arrived. He looked like the bullpen southpaw that Black needed for so long.

Then, Gilbreath’s elbow pain began. After the All-Star break, he posted a 6.23 ERA, allowing runs in seven of his last 15 outings. He pitched his last game of the 2022 season on Aug. 26 against the Mets in New York before he was shut down.

The Rockies tried to fix Gilbreath’s elbow through rehab and a PRP (platelet-rich plasma) injection in September 2022, but during spring training ’23, it became apparent he needed Tommy John surgery. Recovery from surgery went well, and Gilbreath was on course to return to the Rockies this spring. Then his shoulder started aching and five more months of rehab ensued.

“I wish I could say I kept the faith the whole time,” Gilbreath said. “It was a difficult road, there is no way to sugarcoat it. For me, having such a smooth Tommy John recovery, and feeling good, and building back up and hitting all of those checkpoints was great.

“And then, for all of that to fall apart, and the shoulder rehab to be as shaky as it was, it was tough. It seemed like we would have two good days and one horrible day.”

Gilbreath explained that his shoulder injury, which involved his left lat, was similar to a strained hamstring.

“It was so frustrating,” he said. “The crazy thing was, it would feel great one day, and then the next, and then I’d (have issues) again. And then it was back to square one.

“The (trainers) told me that the lat is kind of like the hamstring of the upper body. It stabilizes, it stops, it decelerates — similar to running. And when you’re throwing, it’s a big piece of the machine. So it seemed like it would be good, but then I’d throw a bullpen and it would (tighten up) again. It was so frustrating.”

There were times when Gilbreath couldn’t even play a simple game of catch. Trying harder or pushing through the pain did him no good.

“I started compensating with my delivery,” he said. “That’s not a good thing because it alters your mechanics and can lead to all sorts of other problems.”