May 20, 2023

By Melissa Verge

Canadian Baseball Network

Forward.

Whether Brandon Marklund is eyeing the inside of a catcher's mitt from 60 feet, 6 inches away on the mound, or past years of rehab and surgeries that could’ve ended his career - he’s always looking forward.

It’s keeping that mindset that’s given Marklund a second chance at baseball. Lying in a hospital bed post surgery, when his athletic ability became moot, it’s what stops him from entering a mental spiral.

It would be easy to focus on. To lie in bed, the roar of a packed stadium closer on TV than in reality, wallowing in self pity and what could’ve been. It’s that spiral, not athletic ability, that has finished many athletes' careers before their time.

Back in 2019, a spot in the near future in the Kansas City Royals’ bullpen could’ve very likely had the now 26-year-old’s name on it. He was the 27th top prospect for the Royals.

“Marklund could move quickly en route to a spot in the back end of Kansas City’s big league bullpen,” his scouting report said.

He had just wrapped up an appearance for the national team, one he took great pride in. He got the call from Greg Hamilton to represent the red and white at Premier12. He’s at the top of his game, playing A ball for the Lexington Legends. But it’s all put on hold with the COVID shutdown, followed with a necessary Tommy John surgery.

He’s on the road to recovery, close to the end of the lengthy 12-month rehab process when the second blow hits.

Something doesn’t feel right to Marklund. He’s having trouble hitting spots. Perhaps his mechanics are off, he thinks. He makes a couple of adjustments before his next outing. But he’s still not really in the zone. And he wakes up before his next scheduled outing with his whole arm killing him. When he gets into his third live session, it’s clear something isn’t right.

“I could barely throw a baseball 70, 60 miles per hour,” Marklund said.

An MRI reveals that those nagging thoughts at the back of his mind were right. The high of 2019 is now followed by this crushing news. He was so close to the end of his rehab process, to the small joys that baseball brought him - a packed stadium on a warm summer day, getting the W, the camaraderie with his teammates in the clubhouse. And now he has to start the entire rehab process again. Just over a year since his last Tommy John surgery, and he’s back on the table for number two. He had a flexor tear that needed to be fixed surgically, and would also get an internal ligament brace.

It’s another setback, another challenge, which is part of what actually drew the 26-year-old to the sport in the first place.

The challenge keeps things interesting.

“You can absolutely dominate one year or one game or one batter and then it can completely fall off the table the next one,” Marklund said. “And sometimes you'll understand why, but it's a challenge, and I find that challenge fun.”

That helped keep him sane during his multi-year rehab process - accepting that not only are challenges and failures part of the game, but embracing them. He has to if he ever wants to pitch professionally again. His rehab from TJ No. 2 is as much of a physical challenge as a mental one. Now even more so, he’s worried about re-injury during his rehab process.

“It’s like, ‘Did my body and elbow give me everything I had up until the end of the 2019 season when I was with Team Canada at the Premier12, was that my body's absolute limit?’ And those thoughts come up,’” he said.

The Royals staff helped quell those fears when he could feel them start to take over.

He was encouraged to stay busy off the field, to do things away from the diamond that were good for his mental health. So he spends time doing other things that bring him joy, which helps keep his mind off the current situation - catching movies, going out to dinner, hanging out with friends.

Still, even with his mental fortitude and the help of the Royals staff, it’s a bumpy road, one that being on it and experiencing it first hand makes Marklund see the gaps in the current system.

“I think sometimes and especially with going through all this, that the mental aspect of rehab is definitely not focused on enough, and . . . just the mental game in sports in general really is not focused on enough,” he said.

It’s more than three years of heavy weight, of wondering if he’ll get reinjured, if he’ll pitch professionally again, if his ball playing days have reached the end.

But he keeps pushing, for the joy that baseball brings him, for the love of the game.

When April 2023 rolls around, it's been 41 months since Marklund has taken the field for a game. But, he’s finally back. He owes it to himself, he said, to see where he can go with the sport post injury.

That first time taking the mound was “surreal,” he said.

He’s since signed with the Winnipeg Goldeyes, and his goals are to keep pushing forward, help his new team win, and see where baseball can take him. Even a 10-hour recent road trip bus ride to Fargo, N.D., wasn’t bad for the athlete who has been dealt so many setbacks.

Just like he did in 2019, he has another chance to play for Canada coming up. He’ll be going to the Pan Am qualifier with them in a couple of months. From there, he’s just working on finding his new normal. That could potentially be even more successful than he was before “given that I have basically a brand new elbow,” he said.

It’s his skills on the diamond that have him wanted by teams, but it’s the mental strength he exhibited over years of setbacks that have given him a second chance at baseball.

“You've got to trust the process,” he said. “You keep that mental fortitude that you are going to get through this, almost anything is possible.”