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A Look at What is Next With Nick Kingham’s Rehab Work

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BRADENTON, Fla. – Nick Kingham made his return to a box score today for the first time since May 6th, as he continued his rehab from Tommy John surgery. Kingham pitched a few intrasquad games in Extended Spring Training, going two innings, followed by two starts with three innings. Today he was scheduled to go three innings again, facing a team with another uniform for the first time.

“Felt great. It feels good to get back out there,” Kingham said. “Things were working right. A little elevated, a little amped up. Everything was up in the zone. Couldn’t really find the freaking bottom of the strike zone. But I’m not worried about it. I’m worried about my elbow, and it feels great, so that’s all I care about right now.”

The fastball was elevated, although Kingham got away with it for the most part. The pitch was sitting 90-92 MPH today, down from his velocity in the past, although you wouldn’t expect full velocity at this stage in the rehab.

Scott Elarton has been working with Kingham for the last year in his rehab, and was there today to see the outing.

“I thought he looked good,” Elarton said. “He looked healthy. All his pitches were coming out really nicely. Overall, just still on a good track, and good pattern the way things are heading. We’re looking forward to good things from him.”

While the fastball was elevated, the curveball and changeup both looked good at times. The changeup had some good fading action, and the curveball was being buried at the bottom of the zone. Kingham has shown above-average potential with both pitches in the past, but has also been inconsistent with them at times. The changeup is the better offering, but the curveball is a good pitch as well.

“He threw some good ones today,” Elarton said of the changeup. “Had some pretty good action on them, and some arm speed. He’s on track to be right back where he was before, and hopefully even better.”

Kingham said he felt like the off-speed stuff looked good, and came out of his hand well. As for the elevated pitches, he chalked that up to making his return to the mound.

“Your intensity is up, your adrenaline is pumping a bit more,” Kingham said. “So things are going to be up and elevated.”

The stat line wasn’t the best, with Kingham giving up three unearned runs on three hits in three innings, with a walk and two strikeouts. He threw 42 pitches, with over half in the third inning. All of the damage came in the third, and the runs were unearned due to a throwing error by Kingham where he picked up a weakly hit ball, and tried to go to first base too quickly, dropping the ball in the process and missing the play. He had another play, shown in the video below, where he almost missed a chopper back to the mound.

This is all hardly a concern, as it’s something you’d expect from a pitcher making his first start in so long. Elarton joked that he might need some pitcher’s fielding practice after that.

“[This is] definitely time to get to fine tuning all of those things that you forget about along the way,” Elarton said of the fielding. “Not a big concern. It’s just been a long time since he’s been out there in a regular game. When you get locked in to doing all your rehab stuff, you just kind of forget about those things. And when you get out there, it’s almost a surprise when you’ve got to make a play.”

While doing his rehab, Kingham has been focused on a few things with his game. One thing is to make sure he has consistent arm action, and doesn’t drag his arm behind. The other is to make sure that his stride is lengthened to the plate, and for his arm to work with his body.

“I’m trying to be consistent with my stride,” Kingham said. “Kind of lengthen it out a little bit, allow my arm to work as my body does to not put so much emphasis on my arm.”

After this, Kingham will have two starts with four innings, and one start with five. All of those will be in the GCL. He should go to an affiliate after those rehab starts, but said that’s too far out to know for sure. He would be done with his GCL starts by the end of July, leaving room for one more start at the end of the month.

Kingham did tell me that he’s not even sure if he reaches Indianapolis this year, due to the cautious rehab process the Pirates are taking with Tommy John guys. They’ve scheduled downtime during the rehab process, but Elarton said Kingham is expected to build up from here, with no break planned.  The rehab work is different from previous cases, so it’s hard to say whether Kingham would make it to Triple-A, and when he’d make it. For that reason, I wouldn’t expect him in Pittsburgh this year. However, I wouldn’t rule him out to help next year.

Here are the first two innings from Kingham:

https://youtu.be/JYbZOr68PcA

And here is a strikeout in the third, where he battled back from a 3-0 count:

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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