Nick Frasso Climbs Blue Jays Minors with a Repaired Elbow and Fiery Fastball
One throw washed away all the nerves.
Looking back at the Dunedin scoreboard after the seventh pitch of his 2022 debut, Nick Frasso noticed three digits glowing in the bottom corner. For the first time ever, he’d touched 100 miles per hour.
On a minor league mound for the first time in a year, the Blue Jays prospect had all the usual anxieties of a debut outing. But when the fastball exploded by Yankees top prospect Jasson Dominguez, clocked at 100, Frasso settled in. The seven other strikeouts only confirmed it—he was back.
"Obviously there's nerves, it's been so long,” Frasso said. “I hadn't pitched in a while, but I knew I had that in me."
Frasso made it five innings into his professional career before a forced 12-month hiatus in 2021. Nagging elbow discomfort forced a shut down in college once before, but nothing like the pain he felt during his second outing of the minor-league season. A year and a UCL repair later, Frasso was back on a mound, with a few extra miles per hour on his primary pitch. He followed up the 100 MPH, eight strikeout debut with similarly dominant efforts, earning a promotion, and quickly solidifying himself as the latest flame-throwing Blue Jays pitching prospect to scale Toronto’s minor league system this summer.
Frasso's procedure wasn't quite traditional Tommy John, but a UCL repair with an internal brace, coming with a slightly shorter recovery time than standard TJ. The 2021 injury, though, still meant he had to watch his first full year of pro ball from a rehab room and see his draft class pass him by.
After months of the same arm exercises and throwing programs, Frasso’s adrenaline was pumping when he finally retook the game mound. Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you the California native is a ‘pretty chill guy,’ but that 100 MPH heater was 10 months of anticipation realized with a single flaming fastball.
The triple-digit velocity was a bit of a surprise to Frasso, but the three spotless innings that followed were what rehab coordinators and Dunedin pitching coach Drew Hayes had seen for weeks.
After Frasso was able to hold his velocity for lengthy bullpens in the twilight of his recovery and rehab pitching coach Greg Vogt signed off, the righty returned to Toronto's Single A affiliate in spring 2022.
Hayes had seen Frasso before, in 2020 rookie camp and prior to his injury in 2021, so he had a good baseline for the righty's first side session with Dunedin. What stood out most to Hayes in Frasso's first 20-25 pitches back was just how polished he looked. The velocity was up a touch, but he otherwise looked just like before the injury.
For most guys returning from elbow surgeries, it's hard to throw all-out initially and command is almost always the last thing to come back. But there Frasso was, peppering the strike zone at 98 MPH. Hayes turned to Vogt and asked if the session was a blip. "That's exactly what he's been doing," the rehab coach replied
"That's when it was like if he keeps throwing that many strikes at 97 to 99, he's gonna have a pretty good year," Hayes said.
Frasso began his 2022 debut with three straight strikes. He followed up the at-bat with the 100 MPH punchout of Dominguez and another swinging sit-down of the Tampa Tarpons' three-hole hitter. Before the game, Hayes told Frasso not to worry about the statistical results, the outing was all about him being healthy and having fun on the mound. It was hard not to enjoy the three spotless innings and eight strikeouts, Frasso said.
"You could just tell how much fun he was having," Hayes said. "He's a guy that likes to compete, and he likes to pitch, and you can just tell how excited he was to be back out there."
Frasso touched 100 three times in the debut, earning 18 whiffs on 28 swings while throwing 75% strikes. After his final frame, the 23-year-old was greeted with post-start dugout high fives for the first time in a year, taking a seat to watch the two Dunedin hurlers that followed him push the team's strikeout total to a historic 24. After the outing and the post-game celebrations, Frasso checked on his elbow to make sure everything was intact and then turned to his phone, blowing up with messages from friends and family.
In the starts since, Frasso's velocity naturally bounces up and down, but he followed up his season debut with the same high-heat strike zone pounding almost every time out.
In his seven Single A outings, Frasso posted a 0.70 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, and an almost five-to-one strikeout to walk ratio. Sure, slider whiffs and changeup command are still areas for improvement, but it became quickly clear Single A wasn't a real challenge for him anymore, Hayes said, with domination at every start.
When Frasso got the promotion to High A in late June, he checked off one of his season goals. He'd been hoping for a promotion at some point, and the early numbers at Vancouver seem to suggest he was ready. But, he doesn't want to forget where he was a year ago—a few weeks removed from surgery and embarking on his 10 months of rehab rooms and arm exercises. With the nagging elbow pain and major surgery behind him, Frasso's back on track and loving it.
"I'm just trying to enjoy each outing, not taking any outing for granted," Frasso said. "So just to get out there and get on the field is my goal, quality outing after quality outing."
Mitch Bannon is a baseball reporter for Sports Illustrated covering the Toronto Blue Jays and their minor league affiliates.Twitter: @MitchBannon