TAMPA — Nick Burdi has always thrown smoke on the mound. He has another sport to thank for that.
“I attribute a lot of that to playing quarterback,” the reliever told the Daily News.
A signal-caller with a strong arm at Downers Grove South High School in Illinois, Burdi began pitching as a sophomore at the request of his baseball coaches. The righty had mostly played first base and the outfield prior to that, but Burdi had no problem reaching 95 mph before his second year of high school ended.
Burdi’s arm has attracted major league teams ever since. It’s why the Yankees invited him to spring training.
But Burdi has also paid a steep gas tax. The 31-year-old has undergone two Tommy John surgeries and thoracic outlet surgery. The second Tommy John procedure led to him having his ulnar nerve transposed.
Burdi also underwent an appendectomy last year, but it’s mostly his arm that has limited him to 19 major league games since debuting with the Pirates in 2018. His hard-throwing, free agent brother, Zack, has also had Tommy John surgery.
“He’s had tantalizing stuff. He’s just had a hard time staying on the field,” Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake said after Burdi wowed while throwing live BP on Saturday. “If we can unlock something there with some arm health and kind of just keeping him on the field, that’s as good an arm as there is out there.”
Burdi, who has a 9.39 ERA over 15.1 MLB innings, sat between 97 and 98 during his session, and he’s topped 100 in The Show. But his heat is now coming from a different angle.
Nick Burdi 101mph fastball to strike out Kyle Schwarber 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/CpMzlyAokE
— Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) May 20, 2023
Over the offseason, Burdi decided to drop his arm slot 6-8 inches. He said he’s now close to being a sidearmer; he compared his new slot to Chris Sale’s.
Burdi used to throw more over the top, but he still felt sore after pitching while with the Cubs last year.
That wouldn’t happen when he dropped down during catch play, however. So Burdi officially made the switch over the winter after “flirting with the idea” last season.
The change has improved the shapes of Burdi’s secondary pitches — Blake complimented his sweeper and changeup — but he’s maintained his readings on the radar gun. More importantly, he has an easier time recovering after he throws.
“Finally, this offseason, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna go for it, see what happens,’” Burdi recalled. “And then I got into bullpens. My velocity jumped up. My arm felt better. The slider got better. The changeup was better.”
These days, Burdi is doing everything he can to stay healthy. In addition to the new arm slot, that also includes training with resistance bands and lots of rotator cuff exercises.
He wishes that he – or someone around him – had known more about arm care routines back in high school.
“I was just a 16-year-old who threw 95 and was just told I throw really hard,” Burdi said. “So I just went out there and did it.
“It definitely has something to do with [the injuries]. But I also think that the training, the nutrition, all that stuff, I just never really had that foundation. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to understand it, and I think that’s a testament to why the velocity has been able to stay. Now we just need the health to kind of coincide with it.”
Even if Burdi stays healthy and shines this spring, winning a spot in the Yankees’ bullpen won’t be easy. NRIs always face an uphill battle, and Burdi is not the only talented one in camp. The Yankees, meanwhile, won’t have many open spots in their bullpen if the top of their depth chart stays healthy.
But Ian Hamilton found himself in the same spot last spring, and he became one of Aaron Boone’s most trusted relievers in 2023. So Burdi – or another invitee — could follow suit.
“Anytime you come into camp as a non-roster invite guy, you’re hoping to fight for a job,” he said. “But at the end of the day, there’s eight, nine arms that are capable of winning that. My thing is always just to make it as hard as possible on those guys up top to make a decision. But if my name is in the conversation, then I did everything I could throughout the spring to give myself that chance.”
No matter what happens, Burdi is just glad he’s healthy.
A lot of pitchers would feel frustration after all the injuries he suffered, and he certainly did as a younger player. But now Burdi accepts the surgeries as part of his story, one that he hopes will inspire.
“Early on, I let it kind of affect me,” Burdi said. “As I’ve gotten older and I’ve done this, it’s one of those things where now I just want to keep going because someone else down the line is gonna go through this. Hopefully, they can see my story and have that motivation to keep their dreams going.”
