Getting a Big Leaguer
It happens every year, all around Minor League Baseball. When a Major League star suffers an injury, he heads back down to the farm for a short period of time to rehab back to 100-percent. Once healthy, he can rejoin the major league club.
When Padres catcher Tim Federowicz tore the meniscus in his right knee in March, the recovery process would be lengthy. After four months of grueling work, Federowicz flew in to Fort Wayne on the evening of Saturday, July 11th, and was gone a short week later.
Some Minor League fan bases have the chance to watch a big leaguer play in person almost annually. But it took more than six years for the Fort Wayne TinCaps to host their first Major League rehabber at Parkview Field. It was a short stay for "FedX," but much had to happen to get him to the Summit City, where he would leave a lasting impact.
Mike Nutter, TinCaps Team President
I came to Fort Wayne in October of 1999, so from the 2000 season on, we didn't have any rehabbers. We faced Mark Prior up in Lansing one day when he was a Cub, we faced Joe Girardi in Peoria, but no Padres came to Fort Wayne.
John Nolan, TinCaps Broadcasting and Media Relations Manager
This is obviously not something that happens often, or in the case of Parkview Field previously, ever.
Mike Nutter
[In 2010], we were going to get David Eckstein.
*David Eckstein was a two-time All-Star and World Series champion who played with the Padres from 2009-2010.
Dan Watson, Former TinCaps Play-by-Play Voice (2009-2011)
We started hearing it was a possibility about a week before he was supposed to head out. With the Padres playing in Chicago and Milwaukee at the time, we happened to be the closest affiliate.
Mike Nutter
At one point it looked like we were going to get him here. But it ended up he played at West Michigan up in Grand Rapids.
Dan Watson
I remember Nutter being a little bummed - and rightly so. Eckstein was traveling with the Padres at the time, working out, and it took a little longer than they'd originally expected. You have to remember, we were one muscle twinge away from not getting him at all. If he feels a pull while jogging in the outfield, the rehab gets pushed back and it's a completely different story.
Ricky Huerta, TinCaps Athletic Trainer
My first year in Fort Wayne, [in 2013], we had Everth Cabrera rehab with us. But it was on the road in South Bend.
*Everth Cabrera was an All-Star in 2013 while playing with the Padres
Mike Nutter
As a Padre team so far from the major league city, the expectation is low here. It's been bad luck and geography. So this year has been a unique year. I actually got a call about a month ago, and was asked at the time to keep it totally off the record, that a major league superstar could be coming in to pitch for the other team. Justin Verlander. And it didn't go that way, it ended up that he went and rehabbed at a different place, Indianapolis. So it's neat when this stuff falls into your lap.
FEDEROWICZ TO THE FORT
Francisco Morales, TinCaps Manager
So I first saw it in the news, and I'm waiting for the text or the email to come in.
Mike Nutter
The first place I heard about Federowicz rehabbing with us was online. My buddy Corey Brock with Padres.com had it about a week [before Tim got here]. Hey, I say, if Corey's got it, it must be right.
Corey Brock, San Diego Padres Beat Reporter
I know Tim was told, after surgery on his knee in March, that the window he would be out of action would be three to six months. So on the far end of that scale, it was conceivable that he wouldn't play again this season. So to get back this quickly, it was pretty remarkable.
Tim Federowicz, Padres Catcher
The last four months had been very slow. Very monotonous. It felt like I was doing the same thing every day, but it paid off. I worked hard with my therapist in Arizona and we ended up being ahead of schedule.
Corey Brock
My interactions with Tim, before and after surgery, have always left me with the feeling that this guy wants to play - and play badly.
Tim Federowicz
Rehab first came up [in late June]. When I joined the team, we started planning out my time as far as getting through base running, getting through sliding, and the last hurdle was going to be blocking. We marked it all on the schedule about a week in advance.
John Nolan
From the time it had been reported that Tim could be coming to Fort Wayne until the time he arrived, it wasn't 100-percent definitive that it would happen. The Padres had to wait to see how he felt after catching a simulated game on Saturday afternoon [July 11] before sending him here on a flight that night.
Tim Federowicz
Originally the sim game wasn't in it, that was thrown in at the last minute because [Padres pitcher Brendan] Morrow was throwing in Texas, and they figured it'd be good with me being so far ahead to give it a couple extra days, catch the sim game in front of their eyes and see how it goes.
Corey Brock
[Padres Manager] Pat Murphy told us while the Padres were in Pittsburgh that Tim would be heading to Fort Wayne. Tim traveled with the team during that road trip, working on a few drills to test the knee - sort of the final stage before they sent him to Fort Wayne.
Tim Federowicz
Fort Wayne was one of the teams that was home, had a DH because at-bats are so important for me since I missed out on all of spring training and really haven't had live at-bats since winter ball in November. They wanted me to get a good 50-60 at-bats so we wanted to work something where I could DH on my days off, rather than just not do anything.
Mike Nutter
Two days before Tim gets here, Ricky Huerta walks into my office - and by the way, people don't know how much trainers do. Yea, they do the training work, but they do so much more. And a lot of it is booking hotels, handling travel. So he walks in and said, 'he's coming.'
Ricky Huerta
I got word from Todd Hutcheson, the Padres Head Athletic Trainer up in the bigs. He sent me an email, let me know what he needed and what his plan was. Nutter was very excited.
Mike Nutter
Then it was, ok, can we get him at this hotel? You know, it's Three Rivers Festival so that was booked up. We had another option downtown that we went to. Then it was, can we get these arrangements over to him in a half hour? Ricky's sending up the information to the big league guys. So it does take a good amount of work to get one guy here.
Ricky Huerta
He was with the team, did the sim game, felt good, and then they decided he was ready for the rehab assignment.
Mike Nutter
After I heard it was a done deal, I got a hold of Fred Uhlman, Jr., Padres Assistant General Manager, with a text. I said, thanks a lot for whatever part you had in Tim coming here, I give you my word, we'll make sure he's taken care of, healthy and safe. He replied back right away, 'Mike, we love you, we love Fort Wayne, if the opportunity presents itself more frequently, we will never hesitate to send guys over.' They know what it means to the fans.
Trae Santos, TinCaps First Baseman
I was excited. Jacob Dwiggins, our clubhouse manager, starts putting up his name tag in the locker room and that's when I found out. He's telling us it's a big league rehab guy and I thought about how cool that was to be able to get a chance to talk to him.
GETTING THE SWING BACK
Francisco Morales
Tim didn't play much in spring training, so I wanted to introduce him to the signs and the defensive signals with runners at first and third, and with a runner at second base, things like that.
Lance Burhart, TinCaps Hitting Coach
My job was to just make sure he's getting the work he needs. I asked him a lot of questions, like how long has he been doing the routine he's doing now, what his routine is like day-to-day in the big leagues, things like that.
Tim Federowicz
Lance was real positive through the whole thing, just reiterating it's all about timing, and staying on the fastballs. It was a relief to have him here.
Lance Burkhart
Coming back from those injuries, you can't try to do too much. And I watched Tim the first day, and he looked real calm, wasn't trying to do too much. So for me that's the key.
Mike Nutter
I saw the double that he hit [in his first at-bat on Sunday, July 12]. That thing was on the [outfield] wall in about 1.2 seconds.
Francisco Morales
Then he gets to third base, I just asked him how did it feel to run the bases and to play again. He goes, 'it feels great, I'm kind of nervous to tell you the truth.' I just said, hey, that's normal. He worked so hard to get back and finally he's on track, so he should feel that way.
Tim Federowicz
I was a little nervous, not going to lie. You can see all the batting practice pitching in the world, but it's not quite the same as seeing live pitching.
Mike Nutter
I ran into a guy the other day at lunch. Fan stops me he says, 'I was at the game last night, I couldn't believe it. I saw that big guy wearing the Padres helmet and a friend explained it to me, and that is just awesome he's here.' So it was getting out there, it's cool.
John Nolan
We certainly received more media inquiries to interview Tim than for any other player this year. While it's great to see people interested in having a major leaguer in Fort Wayne, we still had to respect Tim's time. He wasn't here to do a bunch of interviews. He was here to rehab and get closer to rejoining the Padres.
Ricky Huerta
I'm here if he needs some soft tissue work, or if he needs to get stretched out. Mainly for Tim, we wanted to make sure his lower body was ready to go, loose, nothing felt tight, hips were aligned, make sure the quads and hamstrings felt good.
Tim Federowicz
I was just trying to get back to my normal routine that I was doing before. It's mostly mental at this point, that's why it's good that I'm getting in games because I can forget about the knee completely and just play.
LEAVING HIS MARK
Mike Nutter
So Monday [July 13] I go down to meet Tim, I wanted to say hey. He goes, 'you have a great place here. People told me this is like the big leagues of the minors and it is.' And this is coming from a major leaguer.
Time Federowicz
A lot of guys were telling me that it's one of the best in the Minor Leagues. They talked it up a lot before I came here and it lived up to that, it was really nice.
Francisco Morales
It impressed me how open-minded he was. The first time he caught, it was for [Ernesto] Montas, he wanted to meet with Montas before the game. He wasn't here just to catch his five innings, get his legs stronger and move on, he wanted to make Montas better. I heard that, and I said, can I keep this guy for the rest of the season?
Mike Nutter
He was playing cards with the team, he's approachable. Let me go back to Nashville, where I worked before here, the Sounds [triple-A affiliate of the Pirates in 1999]. A long time ago, we had a couple rehabbers. We had a guy, team stretch was at four p.m., and he's getting in at 3:58. Tim got here early, he was engaging, he's talking, there's no wall up around him, there's none of that.
Trae Santos
It was shocking to hear how simple the things he was saying were. He was saying, up in the bigs, they throw a lot more fastballs then you think. They're throwing 80% fastballs and pitchers down here think they have to get everybody out with their other stuff. It's neat to see someone of his stature play down here and pick up on some of the things he does because that's super valuable for us as minor leaguers.
Lance Burkhart
I encouraged everybody to go say hey. I tell these guys you can't make it on your own, you have to pick up stuff from other players.
Francisco Morales
As a manager you want to work with those guys at the higher levels. It shows that - as a manager - you can handle those guys. And that's the challenge, being able to coach a big leaguer at the lower levels. I want to see if I can do it, I want to see if I can communicate with the guys like that.
Mike Nutter
It's customary that when a big leaguer goes to a minor league city, that he buys the guys the post-game spread one night.
Trae Santos
The Biaggi's [Italian Restaurant] spread was incredible. A bunch of the guys including myself are really appreciative of what he did. You've got to be thankful for what you get.
Mike Nutter
I watched 20 guys go up to him and thank him for that spread on Monday night. To see these guys give back is so cool.
Dan Watson
How well a rehab assignment goes is, in a lot of ways, up to the player. I've seen rehab assignments in other organizations where it's almost like the big leaguer has been exiled - disinterested, not giving much effort, just putting in their time until they're allowed to come back to the big club. It tends to go really well for everybody when the big leaguer comes in looking to make the best of the situation. The guy gets healthy, the minor leaguers get to learn from him for a few days, you get some great dinners, everybody wins.
Tim Federowicz
A lot of the guys wanted to know what it was like, our daily routines in the big leagues, our workouts during the season. The guys were interested in what they have to look forward to. I love helping these guys, it's good to hear the questions and answer them.
Mike Nutter
With getting Tim, we're low-A, but it's a big league environment and if they come here, they're going to get treated the right way and we'll take care of them. It's our job whether they're wearing the Padres gear or not, give them a great experience, hopefully they stay healthy, and then get them out of town. Someday, we'll get another guy, and who knows, Tim might text that guy and tell him, hey I was there for six days, they took care of me, I had a good time and, man, you're going to love it. That's all you can ask for.
Federowicz played in five games for the TinCaps and hit .313. He is continuing his rehab with the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas and is expected to join the Padres in early August.