Following arduous Tommy John recovery, SF Giants’ Robbie Ray back to All-Star form
SAN FRANCISCO — Robbie Ray remembers when everything clicked.
It was April 26, 2025 — 724 days since Ray underwent two surgeries that, in effect, robbed him of two seasons. The first three innings of Ray’s afternoon were fine but unspectacular, giving up a sacrifice fly in the first and another in the third. The fourth inning was different.
Ray began the frame with a strikeout, then induced a groundout and a fly out. Ray’s excitement didn’t lie in the results. As Ray walked back to Oracle Park’s third-base dugout, he realized his timing was back. He felt synced up.
He was finally back.
“Something clicked with my delivery,” Ray said. “I can’t necessarily put my finger on it. It was like that feeling where you haven’t ridden a bike in a long time, and then all of a sudden, you get on it. You don’t forget that feeling. That’s kind of what I was feeling in that fourth inning. I was like, ‘Oh, this is it.’”
Ray turned in his best outing as a Giant: seven innings, two runs, eight strikeouts. It was an outing that kicked off a two-and-a-half-month stretch of excellence — a stretch that has landed him a spot on the National League All-Stars alongside Logan Webb and Randy Rodríguez. Ray won’t pitch in the All-Star Game since he’s starting on Sunday against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the selection itself is plenty rewarding.
“It’s definitely been a journey,” Ray said, “and it’s nice to see it pay off.”
For Ray, this journey began on May 3, 2023.
Ray experienced left forearm discomfort during his first start of the 2023 season with the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners placed him on the injured list the following day, and following a setback in his rehab, Ray opted for season-ending surgery to repair his flexor tendon in late April.
Further testing revealed Ray’s ulnar collateral ligament also needed repair. He’d need the dreaded Tommy John surgery. If Ray only needed to rehab his flexor tendon, he could’ve been back for the start of the 2024 season. Tommy John surgery ensured he’d be out for most of — if not all of — the first half. On May 3, 2023, Dr. Keith Meister performed the two procedures.
Ray, who was then in the second year of a five-year, $115 million contract, spent a good chunk of the rehab process at the Mariners’ Spring Training facility in Peoria, Ariz. In Ray’s absence, Seattle’s rotation evolved into one of baseball’s best, featuring Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo and Bryce Miller. Ray would never rejoin that group.
On Jan. 5, 2024, the Giants traded for Ray in exchange for outfielder Mitch Haniger, right-hander Anthony DeSclafani and cash considerations. San Francisco understood Ray would miss most of the season. The team also knew that Ray wouldn’t instantly regain his Cy Young form when he did return. But former president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi saw the potential.
“I think for us, Robbie and the long-term vision of him being a tandem at the top of our rotation with Logan Webb was the No. 1 motivation but some of the flexibility it creates for opportunities internally and a little bit more maneuverability in terms of other free agent moves or trade acquisitions we’re looking at is certainly part of it,” Zaidi said at the time of the trade.
The key adjective: long-term.
Ray resumed his recovery with the Giants following the trade, not making the first of 10 rehab appearances until June 4, 2024. On July 24, 2024 — 448 days since his last start in the majors — Ray returned to a major-league mound, his task being the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
The rust was apparent when he walked in a runner with the bases loaded in the first inning. But the stuff was apparent when he threw five no-hit innings with eight strikeouts against a team that would go on to win the World Series.
As well as Ray pitched against the Dodgers, his return was defined by inconsistency. His third and fourth starts were prime examples.
On Aug. 9 against the Detroit Tigers, he pitched six innings of two-run ball, his first quality start since surgery. On Aug. 14 against the Atlanta Braves, he recorded two outs, walked three and allowed five runs, unable to finish the first inning. Over seven starts, Ray posted a 4.70 ERA.
Ray was back. But he wasn’t back.
“It just seemed like I felt really good, but it just wasn’t adding up,” Ray said. “I’d throw in bullpens and it was great. Then, I’d go out in the game and it was like I completely lost it.”
“In hindsight, with the trade for Robbie, with the salary, with our underperformance on the pitching end at times last year, I think a lot of the narrative around Robbie coming back was that he’d be this savior for the pitching staff, right? It was like, ‘As soon as we get Ray and (Alex) Cobb back, we’ll really start to roll,’ ” said pitching coach J.P. Martinez. “Looking back, I don’t think that was totally fair to him, to put so much pressure on him.”
Justin Verlander, who underwent Tommy John surgery in 2020 and missed all of 2021, knows firsthand the difficulty of fending off doubt.
“You just have to fight it,” Verlander said. “You have to trust the process. In my case, the rehab was going really well and there would be some small things that would creep up. You just got to remind yourself, ‘This is normal and not every day is going to be a great day.’ The only thing that really puts your mind at ease is performing — going out there and trusting it and letting it happen. Then, once that happens, you forget about it.”
One of the most influential figures in Ray’s recovery was Webb, who underwent Tommy John in 2016. Webb returned in 2017, missing only a little more than a year following his surgery, but it wasn’t until about 25 months following the surgery that Webb threw five innings in a single game. Despite being five years Ray’s junior, Webb helped the left-hander understand the peaks and valleys of the recovery process.
“Thankfully I had Webby here to talk me through that process of coming back from surgery and understanding there’s going to be days where you don’t necessarily have it,” Ray said. “You might feel great, but your body’s still trying to figure it out. He was a key piece in helping me to realize that.”
In his conversations with Webb and others, Ray learned that it’s not until 18-to-20 months post-surgery that pitchers started feeling like themselves again. During spring training — roughly 21 months after undergoing surgery — Ray hit that sweet spot.
The results during Cactus League play were exceptional. Over five starts, Ray had a 1.86 ERA with 23 strikeouts to one walk. Along with his usual repertoire of four-seam fastball, curveball and slider, Ray reintroduced a pitch to his arsenal that had been dormant for years: a changeup.
Ray regularly threw a changeup as a rookie in 2014 but the pitch faded from his repertoire by 2017. He sprinkled in a couple changeups over the years, but the pitch wasn’t a prominent part of his mix. But at the conclusion of the ‘24 postseason, Ray texted Tarik Skubal, the 2024 American League Cy Young Award winner, about how he threw his changeup. Skubal, in return, sent Ray “the kitchen sink.”
“I think it’s allowed me to get deeper into games,” Ray said, “not just necessarily going for the strikeout every single time, but getting early outs and being able to go deep.”
Added Martinez: “Just having something to keep those hitters honest — moving the other direction and pulling the string on them — has done wonders for him.”
Entering Sunday, Ray is 9-3 with a 2.63 ERA and has totaled 122 strikeouts over 113 innings. The Giants are 15-4 on days that Ray starts, which includes team wins in his first nine starts of the year. Earlier this month, Ray threw the second complete game of his career against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ray’s injuries robbed him of two prime seasons, but in his first fully healthy year back, he’s proving he’s still a top-of-the-rotation arm.
“The impressive thing about what he has done up to this point is it’s almost like you have to start your career over again,” said manager Bob Melvin. “You never really know. You go through rehab. It’s a lonely time, but he took it seriously. … Credit to him for hard work and going through what was a tough rehab period.”