Lakeland, Fla. — As his teammates were boarding buses and heading to Bradenton to play the Pirates on Thursday, Reese Olson stayed back in the clubhouse. Again. He had breakfast, played cards with Parker Meadows, killing some time before he’d get on with whatever strength and conditioning or arm care duties he had scheduled for that day.
It’s hard to fathom what this feels like for him. The baby-faced, 23-year-old right-hander who throws mid-to-upper 90s heat with a paralyzing changeup, was put on the 40-man roster for the first time this offseason. He arrived in Lakeland a week ahead of pitchers-catchers report date, pumped to compete in his first big-league camp.
And then he got shingles. He’s still waiting to pitch in a spring game.
“Frustrating, for sure,” he said. “But it’s one of those things, like, what can you do? There’s nothing I can really do about it. Can’t really get too upset, but obviously, it’s pretty frustrating.”
Shingles is no joke. The rash and blistering is bad enough, but before all of that, there’s considerable pain, itching and even tingling sensations. Olson, who ended up being shut down for a few days, said he felt tightness and eventually reported abdominal soreness.
“The shingles popped up and I think that contributed to it,” Olson said. “That’s what I’m attributing that flare-up to. It didn’t hit me too bad. I know a lot of people have been hit worse. Some guys’ parents got it and they couldn’t walk.”
The good news is, Olson is back on track. He threw a live batting practice (facing hitters) Wednesday and will throw another Saturday. If all goes well, he will be on track to make his spring debut.
“Everything is right where I want it,” he said. “The sinker I added has been money, metrically, and the velocity is 95 to 97 mph.”
He’s been champing at the bit to test drive the new sinker in live competition. His four-seam, changeup, slider, curveball mix was good enough to set a strikeout record at Double-A Erie last season, 168 punch-outs in 119.2 innings.
But the Tigers’ pitching department, seeing his four-seamer get banged around a fair bit toward the end of the season and seeing right-handed hitters doing more damage than they should against him, suggested that he consider adding a two-seam sinker to his mix.
“They told me to start thinking about it and then in a Zoom meeting with the big-league pitching coaches, they told me it would probably be something that would help me out moving forward. I started messing around with it this offseason and then the first day I started throwing it on the Trackman (camera), it was right where I wanted it, metrically.”
The sinker, which he throws with the same velocity as his four-seamer, allows him to attack with velocity both up and down in the zone. It’s also a pitch he can use to get inside on right-handers.
“I use a traditional sinker grip and it’s been solid,” Olson said. “It’s just another wrinkle, especially with how hard it is…It’s another thing for the hitter to be focused on.”
Initially, Olson was going to be in a large group of starting pitchers competing for bulk-inning or bridge relief roles. It’s possible now, inside of three weeks left in camp, the Tigers will let Olson build himself up to start the season in the rotation at Triple-A Toledo.
Nothing is set in stone.
Assuming everything goes well with his second live session Saturday, he’d probably start pitching in games after the Grapefruit League’s universal off day next Wednesday. There would be 11 days of games left, including one split-squad game.
“It was a weird situation,” he said. “But it cleared up pretty quick. Everything feels good.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky