Jeff Francis is back in his customary spot in the front part of the Colorado Rockies starting rotation, ready to resume a career interrupted by shoulder problems.
Whether or not the left-hander from North Delta, B.C., can pick up where he left off before his troubles began is a key question facing the defending National League wild card champions.
The signs have been mostly positive this spring, but the true answer only starts being revealed next week.
“There’s no telling,” Francis said in a recent interview. “The only way to know is to get out there and do it. I can stand here all I want and say, ‘Yeah I’m going to be the same guy.’ If I don’t go out and do it, there’s no point.
“To me, I just have to get out there, get back to that rhythm, hopefully it comes back to me, and I can be the pitcher I know I am.”
Francis is one of a handful of Canadians in the major leagues heading into the 2010 season on the mend from injuries varying in degrees of severity.
Justin Morneau of New Westminster, B.C., is returning from a stress fracture in his back that forced him to sit and watch as his Minnesota Twins won the American League Central and lost to the New York Yankees in the post-season. He’s cut back on his work this spring to help keep him fresh later in the year, and manager Ron Gardenhire intends to monitor his slugger closely.
“It’s been a lot different,” is how Morneau described his spring to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
“My back feels good, but my swing doesn’t feel like where I want it to be yet. Hopefully, it will benefit me in August and September.”
Left-hander Erik Bedard of Navan, Ont., is making slow but steady progress from shoulder surgery of his own. He won’t start the season with the Seattle Mariners, but the team is hopeful he’ll be ready as soon as a couple months down the road.
Right-hander Shawn Hill, now of the Toronto Blue Jays, is aiming for a return by June after undergoing a second Tommy John surgery on his elbow last year.
Catcher Russ Martin of Chelsea, Que., appears set to open the season with the Los Angeles Dodgers on time next week after missing much of the spring with a right groin injury.
And first baseman Joey Votto of Toronto is looking for a less tumultuous season with the Cincinnati Reds after facing and overcoming depression and anxiety issues last year.
Rich Harden of Victoria, meanwhile, will be seeking consecutive years of health for the first time since 2003-04. He made 26 starts last season for the Chicago Cubs, going 9-9 with a 4.09 ERA over 141 innings, and will be looking to give the Texas Rangers even more this year.
For his part, Francis will be trying to regain the form he showed in 2007, when the finesse pitcher set career-highs with 17 wins, 215 1-3 innings and 165 strikeouts while leading the Rockies to the World Series.
The issues that led to his surgery on a torn labrum began the next season, when the 29-year-old tried to pitch through shoulder pain.
Francis went 4-10 with a 5.01 ERA in 24 starts around a stint on the disabled list, and didn’t feel right the whole season.
“I battled with shoulder pain for most of that year,” he said. “I went on the disabled list in July, and came back actually feeling really good, throwing the ball a little bit harder, but by the middle of September the shoulder pain was back and worse, so they shut me down.”
Unlike his time off in the summer, the pain didn’t go away in the fall. A physics major during his days at the University of British Columbia, he still stubbornly believed he could avoid surgery, even agreeing to pitch for Canada in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
It was never a realistic possibility.
“It was me being hopeful,” Francis concedes.
“Even in mid-December when I was trying to throw, it was pretty painful. I was trying to do everything I could to not have surgery because I wanted to pitch last year. Once mid-December rolled around it was pretty obvious I wasn’t going to be ready for the World Baseball Classic.”
Yet he hoped he to be ready for the regular season and came to spring training believing some rehab might do the trick.
Francis didn’t really concede mentally until, “the day before I had the surgery.”
“I went to spring training and threw a couple of bullpens but it just wasn’t working,” he said. “That was my last option.”
The surgery was a success but it left him a spectator as his team rallied from a poor start and the firing of manager Clint Hurdle to win the wild card under Jim Tracy.
Colorado’s 74-42 finish after an 18-28 start under Hurdle was reminiscent of the club’s dramatic finish to the 2007 season, when the Rockies closed things out with a 21-8 run in September and October to win the wild card.
That year the Rockies simply got hot at the right time. The difference last year, as Francis saw it from the bench?
“The manager changed,” he said. “A lot of people like to point to that as a turnaround, which happened right around the time we turned it around. I think we just started playing the way we know we can.
“It was certainly a change of pace. The evidence is there. As players you feel bad because you don’t want your manager to get fired, yet you know the only reason he does is because you’re not performing. That’s really a shame but that’s a reality of sports.”
The Rockies would like to get themselves back into the post-season with less drama this season, and a healthy Francis can help on that front.
He’ll follow opening-day starter Ubaldo Jimenez and start April 6 in Milwaukee, his first big-league outing since Sept. 12, 2008. His manager is among those who believes Francis won’t miss a beat.
“He’s got tremendous know-how,” Tracy told reporters recently. “You think of the Tom Glavines of the world, people like that. This is a brilliant young man. This is a very, very intelligent man. So, you combine some physical capability with some know-how, it’s a real, real special piece to have back in the fold.”