Former Mountaineer and current Baltimore Orioles pitcher John Means suffered what the club hopes to be just a minor setback in his recovery from Tommy John surgery. Means went through the reconstructive elbow surgery in April of 2022 and has not played since.
Means was rehabbing with a weighted medicine ball and went to make one more throw but wanted to put a little more into this throw and then the pain hit him. The injury is strained muscle in his upper back area, known as the teres major.
“I wanted to go a little hard on the last one and it yanked on me a little bit,” Means said. “Disappointing, obviously, but at least it’s not a throwing injury or anything like that, but at the same time it makes it a little more frustrating.”
Means believes that he will pitch this season.
“Yeah, yeah, absolutely,” he said on the idea of pitching in 2023.
Means is aiming for an August return. The Orioles are sitting at 34-20 right now which is good for the third best record in baseball and second place in the division. Means threw a no-hitter in 2021, and was a consistent force in the Orioles’ rotation prior to having his surgery.
