Orioles’ Chris Bassitt is optimistic after undergoing rare back surgery

CINCINNATI — The worst part of all this — worse than the stiffness that would prevent him from pitching deep into games — was that right-hander Chris Bassitt felt like he was causing more harm than good for the Orioles.

Before he underwent surgery to remove a bone spur from his back, Bassitt dealt with the frustration that comes when not matching expectations. He tried to pitch through back pain. He tried multiple avenues for relief, beginning with medicine and continuing to injections.

Ultimately, Bassitt opted to undergo what president of baseball operations Mike Elias described as a “very minor” back surgery to address the root cause of the issue. And on Friday in Cincinnati, where he worked through physical therapy exercises as Baltimore began a series against the Reds, Bassitt felt excited.

The surgery — a facet bone spur removal from Dr. Brandon Rebholz in Milwaukee — is rare, Bassitt said. He’s “writing the script a little bit” for a pitcher recovering from the procedure.

The lack of relief from less-invasive treatment methods led Bassitt to jump at the opportunity for surgery. With the operation behind him, Bassitt says he expects to return this season. And when he does, he plans to pitch like a better version of himself.

“I want to perform. Going through it, it was one of those things, I pitched through it. I thought I could pitch through it. But the reality of it was, the results of me pitching weren’t there,” said Bassitt, the 37-year-old starter who joined the Orioles this season on a one-year, $18.5 million contract.

“I feel like I’m pretty realistic and pretty hard on myself. I was like, ‘I’m not helping the team.’ I’m putting Shane [Baz] in a bad spot. I’m putting [Trevor] Rogers in a bad spot, especially, because those two are before and after me. … Everyone is trying to make up for my lack of performance, so to speak. It was one of those things where I had to get rid so I could help these guys rather than being the liability, so to speak, I could start being an asset again.”

The bone spur that developed in his back was mercurial. It made its presence felt in his side, making Bassitt feel as though he had a lat strain. Sometimes it took until the fourth or fifth inning of a start before it tightened and ached. Other times, it began “the third or fourth pitch in warmups, where I was like, ‘Dang, this does not feel good today,’” Bassitt said.

Bassitt, who has a 5.27 ERA in 56 1/3 innings this year, most noticeably labored through a start at Fenway Park on June 3. He lasted three innings and left early with back discomfort. He landed on the injured list shortly after and received an injection into his back, which was a step up in the sort of “constant treatment” he received since the back pain began in early or mid-April.

After a few weeks, when the injections didn’t lead to the relief Bassitt sought, surgery became the option. He sought it eagerly.

“I was honestly excited as hell for it, because all the medicine and shit wasn’t working, so I was like, ‘Please, let’s do it,’” Bassitt said. “It wasn’t super invasive. It wasn’t going to be a ton of time off. It wasn’t a back surgery. Obviously, it was a back surgery, but it wasn’t like the standard back surgery, so to speak, so I wasn’t scared from that standpoint. It wasn’t like a discectomy, where that’s way more serious, way more possible complications. Dr. Rebholz in Milwaukee, couldn’t be more happy with him. Probably owe him a pretty good gift after this.”

Bassitt needs to recover first. He has an idea of when he could begin throwing, but considering there is no blueprint for a pitcher recovering from this surgery, Bassitt didn’t want to pinpoint the date.

While Bassitt appears set to miss multiple weeks, at least, the Orioles added right-hander Dean Kremer back to the rotation. Kremer, who missed almost two months with a quad strain, returned this week and produced six innings of one-run ball in a win against the Chicago White Sox.

The Orioles are dealing with a slew of injuries, however, and right-hander Ryan Helsley is the latest major concern. The closer landed on the injured list with right elbow discomfort Friday and he is reviewing opinions and options following an MRI. Left-hander Keegan Akin is going through the same deliberation process regarding his elbow.

Bassitt, at least, seems optimistic regarding his prognosis, even though the exact recovery timeline is unclear.

“Your body naturally builds a bone spur because it’s like, ‘We don’t want you to do this anymore.’ A lot of the time, it happens in the elbow and things like that. I guess my mechanics are eff’d up enough to where my body was like, ‘We don’t want to do this anymore,’ so I had a bone spur in my back in a weird area,” Bassitt said.

With the bone spur gone, “I’m just going to treat it day by day and just try to be as healthy as I can every single day, and work my butt off every single day,” Bassitt said.