As A’s pitcher Jarrod Parker grapples with whether to continue his baseball career after a fourth major arm injury, he really owes it to himself to stop by new teammate Ryan Madson’s locker for a chat before he makes a decision.
Parker doesn’t necessarily have to ask Madson for advice. He simply needs to hear his story, both for his psychological and physical well-being, and perhaps to develop a proper framework to make that decision.
Madson only endured one significant arm injury, not four. But he did spent two fruitless seasons trying to come back from an elbow injury first suffered during spring training in 2012, and frustrated by his efforts to complete a comeback with two different clubs for which he never threw a single pitch, he retired altogether in 2014, bitter and full of self pity.