D-backs Tuffy Gosewisch feels ‘100 percent’ ready to go after last year’s injury
Mar 10, 2016, 12:15 PM
Tuffy Gosewisch is feeling 100 percent after tearing his ACL in his left knee last May. (Photo by Jessica Watts/Cronkite News)
(Photo by Jessica Watts/Cronkite News)
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — For the first time in his career, Diamondbacks catcher Tuffy Gosewisch started on Opening Day last year after playing over 700 games in the minor leagues.
All the hard worked had paid off and a dream had been fulfilled.
That dream turned into a nightmare two months into the season for Gosewisch, when on May 27 in St. Louis, he tore his ACL in his left knee while stretching out to reach first base.
Season over.
Now, fully recovered from that injury, Gosewisch said the toughest part about getting hurt last year was sitting out the rest of the season.
“You want to play every day and as soon as that happened, I knew my season was over,” he said.
Gosewisch entered spring training with no restrictions and now feels “100 percent ready to go.” He had surgery on his knee in June and rehabbed with the team and the D-backs’ trainers.
The former Arizona State product said he didn’t talk to a lot of players who had dealt with the same injury.
“I only talked to people in the organization that had it but I didn’t go out of my way to talk to anyone that had it other than a few guys that I knew.”
Gosewisch will have to wear a knee brace this season, but it hasn’t made him change his batting stance or catching style.
The D-backs spend time each day during workouts running the bases and Gosewisch recalls the first time he ran the bases after his surgery.
“It was definitely weird when I ran the bases. It’s the first time you probably hit the base and try to turn or go through the base and you land on that leg that had surgery. It was interesting but I didn’t feel anything.”
Gosewisch is currently in a three-man battle for the backup catching position with Chris Herrmann and Óscar Hernandez. Welington Castillo is the starter.
Despite losing his starting job to Castillo, Gosewisch said there is a positive to the injury he sustained.
“I actually feel better now than I did before the injury. I feel good. It’s like nothing ever happened to be honest.”
