The University of Mississippi Athletics
Aaron Barrett's Miracle #MLBRebs Comeback Story
11/13/2019 | Baseball
How Barrett Overcame Debilitating Injury to Become a World Series Champion
Aaron Barrett was never supposed to make it back to Major League Baseball.
The former Rebel spent two quality years as a reliever with the Washington Nationals from 2014-15 and emerged as a viable option in a crowded Washington bullpen before Tommy John surgery in 2015 set him back a year or two. It was devastating news, but not even comparable to the freak injury a year later that truly put the nail in Barrett's MLB career – or so the doctors thought.
"On one pitch, a four-seam fastball, as I was accelerating my arm forward, my humerus bone snapped in half," Barrett said. "It was a clean break. Hands-down the most excruciating thing I've ever gone through. I blacked out and went into shock."
Witnesses reported hearing a gunshot. Many of his teammates couldn't handle the sight. Barrett's doctors thought he had been in a car accident. Dr. James Andrews, a renowned sports orthopedic surgeon, had never quite seen an injury like it.
"You just don't break your bone like that throwing a baseball," Barrett said.
It took two plates and 16 screws, but doctors repaired his arm – again. Barrett described it as a "miracle surgery." His surgeons just wanted his arm to function again. They told him ever pitching again was a long shot, at best.
Barrett welcomed the challenge.
Four years after he last stepped on to an MLB mound and two surgeries later, he returned to Washington with a comeback story for the ages. In his first appearance back, he pitched a full inning and struck out Braves' All-Star Ronald Acuña Jr. As he walked back to the dugout, he broke down and cried.
But his story still wasn't complete. Two months after his triumphant return to the league and against all odds, Barrett was a World Series Champion.
At the time of his second injury, Barrett's wife with was pregnant with their daughter, and he still couldn't lift his right arm. And so, following the surgery, the long road to recovery began, not for the purpose of one day throwing a baseball again, but just being able to hold his infant daughter.
"It was very hard," Barrett said. "I had some dark days for sure. There were times where I was rehabbing and throwing a baseball wasn't even on my mind. It was just about getting functionality in my arm back, being able to be a normal human being, just being able to hold my daughter. That was the only thing on my mind."
The Nationals stuck with him through two surgeries and four years of rehab, but many in the clubhouse thought they had seen the last of Barrett's MLB days.
"I really believed that I was going to make it back," he said. "I would tell the guys in the clubhouse and my manager that when I make it back, it's going to be a hell of a comeback story."
Did they believe him? "Probably not," he said.
"I don't think a lot of people did. I'm one of the only guys to ever do what I did to my arm. I have 16 screws in my arm. I definitely don't think a lot of people believed me, but I did, and that's all that matters."
He threw off a pitching mound for the first time in three years in 2018, save for his one appearance in a simulation game that ended in disaster a year prior. In 2019, he led all Double-A pitchers with 31 saves for the Harrisburg Senators.
On Sept. 3, after an All-Star season in Double-A, he received the news that his story was coming full circle, and he would be rejoining the Nationals just before their improbable playoff run.
"Words can't describe the feeling," he said. "The Nationals could've easily written me off. They have been unbelievable throughout this entire process. They continued to believe in me. They stuck by my side."
The Nationals were never favorites to win the World Series. But just as Barrett believed in himself through his years-long journey back to the MLB level, the players in that clubhouse believed in themselves, even after a 19-31 start to the season, and they never lost faith.
"You just can't quantify how big guys' hearts are, or how big their will to win is," he said. "Every single guy in that clubhouse believed from day one that we were going to win. That's probably one of the best clubhouses I've ever been a part of."
The celebration still hasn't ended for Barrett and the Nationals, nor is there an end in sight. He's since brought the elation back down to Oxford, to the same place that kickstarted an illustrious major league career almost 10 years ago.
Swayze Field has seen some upgrades in the years since Barrett last pitched off the mound in Oxford, but it still holds that same charm, he said.
"It's got a lot of new perks, a lot of new bells and whistles, but it's still the same Swayze," he said. "I'll never forget the time I took my first visit. We walked into the stadium, the lights were on and the music was playing, and they had me walk on to the mound, and I just knew. I had the feeling right from the get-go that I was playing baseball here."
Barrett spoke with the new crop of Rebels earlier this week, and expressed to them the importance of embracing life's setbacks, a story Barrett knows all too well.
Underrecruited out of high school, he signed with Wabash Valley College. As a big name junior college signee coming to Ole Miss, he expected to anchor the weekend rotation. He didn't. After a dismal four-game stretch, he was sent to the bullpen.
Despite not having the career of Rebels like Lance Lynn or Drew Pomeranz, he was drafted by the Washington Nationals in 2010. It all culminated in his MLB debut in 2014, and then all came crashing down with four long years away from the game he loved. He was told his baseball career was likely over. It wasn't.
And look at him now, World Series champion.
"There were definitely times when I wanted to give up, that I definitely didn't think I could do it," Barrett said. "But I had so much support from my wife. She just wouldn't let me give up. I'm a believer as well, I believe in Jesus Christ, and I pushed him away for a long time. I first questioned why this happened to me, but I started reading my devotionals and my mindset started to change. I started to think, 'Why not me?'"
The former Rebel spent two quality years as a reliever with the Washington Nationals from 2014-15 and emerged as a viable option in a crowded Washington bullpen before Tommy John surgery in 2015 set him back a year or two. It was devastating news, but not even comparable to the freak injury a year later that truly put the nail in Barrett's MLB career – or so the doctors thought.
"On one pitch, a four-seam fastball, as I was accelerating my arm forward, my humerus bone snapped in half," Barrett said. "It was a clean break. Hands-down the most excruciating thing I've ever gone through. I blacked out and went into shock."
Witnesses reported hearing a gunshot. Many of his teammates couldn't handle the sight. Barrett's doctors thought he had been in a car accident. Dr. James Andrews, a renowned sports orthopedic surgeon, had never quite seen an injury like it.
"You just don't break your bone like that throwing a baseball," Barrett said.
It took two plates and 16 screws, but doctors repaired his arm – again. Barrett described it as a "miracle surgery." His surgeons just wanted his arm to function again. They told him ever pitching again was a long shot, at best.
Barrett welcomed the challenge.
Four years after he last stepped on to an MLB mound and two surgeries later, he returned to Washington with a comeback story for the ages. In his first appearance back, he pitched a full inning and struck out Braves' All-Star Ronald Acuña Jr. As he walked back to the dugout, he broke down and cried.
But his story still wasn't complete. Two months after his triumphant return to the league and against all odds, Barrett was a World Series Champion.
At the time of his second injury, Barrett's wife with was pregnant with their daughter, and he still couldn't lift his right arm. And so, following the surgery, the long road to recovery began, not for the purpose of one day throwing a baseball again, but just being able to hold his infant daughter.
"It was very hard," Barrett said. "I had some dark days for sure. There were times where I was rehabbing and throwing a baseball wasn't even on my mind. It was just about getting functionality in my arm back, being able to be a normal human being, just being able to hold my daughter. That was the only thing on my mind."
The Nationals stuck with him through two surgeries and four years of rehab, but many in the clubhouse thought they had seen the last of Barrett's MLB days.
"I really believed that I was going to make it back," he said. "I would tell the guys in the clubhouse and my manager that when I make it back, it's going to be a hell of a comeback story."
Did they believe him? "Probably not," he said.
"I don't think a lot of people did. I'm one of the only guys to ever do what I did to my arm. I have 16 screws in my arm. I definitely don't think a lot of people believed me, but I did, and that's all that matters."
He threw off a pitching mound for the first time in three years in 2018, save for his one appearance in a simulation game that ended in disaster a year prior. In 2019, he led all Double-A pitchers with 31 saves for the Harrisburg Senators.
On Sept. 3, after an All-Star season in Double-A, he received the news that his story was coming full circle, and he would be rejoining the Nationals just before their improbable playoff run.
"Words can't describe the feeling," he said. "The Nationals could've easily written me off. They have been unbelievable throughout this entire process. They continued to believe in me. They stuck by my side."
The Nationals were never favorites to win the World Series. But just as Barrett believed in himself through his years-long journey back to the MLB level, the players in that clubhouse believed in themselves, even after a 19-31 start to the season, and they never lost faith.
"You just can't quantify how big guys' hearts are, or how big their will to win is," he said. "Every single guy in that clubhouse believed from day one that we were going to win. That's probably one of the best clubhouses I've ever been a part of."
The celebration still hasn't ended for Barrett and the Nationals, nor is there an end in sight. He's since brought the elation back down to Oxford, to the same place that kickstarted an illustrious major league career almost 10 years ago.
Swayze Field has seen some upgrades in the years since Barrett last pitched off the mound in Oxford, but it still holds that same charm, he said.
"It's got a lot of new perks, a lot of new bells and whistles, but it's still the same Swayze," he said. "I'll never forget the time I took my first visit. We walked into the stadium, the lights were on and the music was playing, and they had me walk on to the mound, and I just knew. I had the feeling right from the get-go that I was playing baseball here."
Barrett spoke with the new crop of Rebels earlier this week, and expressed to them the importance of embracing life's setbacks, a story Barrett knows all too well.
Underrecruited out of high school, he signed with Wabash Valley College. As a big name junior college signee coming to Ole Miss, he expected to anchor the weekend rotation. He didn't. After a dismal four-game stretch, he was sent to the bullpen.
Despite not having the career of Rebels like Lance Lynn or Drew Pomeranz, he was drafted by the Washington Nationals in 2010. It all culminated in his MLB debut in 2014, and then all came crashing down with four long years away from the game he loved. He was told his baseball career was likely over. It wasn't.
And look at him now, World Series champion.
"There were definitely times when I wanted to give up, that I definitely didn't think I could do it," Barrett said. "But I had so much support from my wife. She just wouldn't let me give up. I'm a believer as well, I believe in Jesus Christ, and I pushed him away for a long time. I first questioned why this happened to me, but I started reading my devotionals and my mindset started to change. I started to think, 'Why not me?'"
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