TEMPE, Ariz. – In Sean Burnett’s neighborhood at the northeast edge of the Everglades in South Florida, residents routinely play laser tag at 20,000 feet, fly to lunch and generally have a good time in the air.
It’s called the Wellington Aero Club, an aviation community home to lots of retired pilots and a 4,000-foot lighted runway, and it’s where the Angels reliever has made his home for the last two years.
“Everybody has airplanes where I live,” Burnett said this week. “It’s like a pull-’em-into-your-garage type thing. It’s fun.”
For Burnett, 31, the offseason was not so fun. The left-hander spent most of it rehabbing from surgery to repair a tear in the flexor tendon of his left elbow, after mysterious pain in his forearm cost him most of his debut season with the Angels.
He threw just 92/3innings in 13 games after averaging more than 70 appearances in the four previous seasons. After Dr. James Andrews performed the surgery in August in Birmingham, Ala., Burnett resumed throwing right around year’s end and is now just days from throwing off a mound for the first time since May.
Because of all that, he might be the most overlooked addition to the Angels’ 2014 roster. In combination with steady offseason signee Joe Smith and effective if unsteady closer Ernesto Frieri, a healthy Burnett would help make for one of baseball’s better late-inning trios.
But an unhealthy Burnett would make the Angels bullpen look a lot like it looked at various points last season – a question mark.
“I think we saw what it meant not having Sean there last year,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “We definitely hope we don’t have to revisit that. This guy’s a terrific reliever and he gives us a lot of balance.”
A year ago at this time, Burnett was new in camp on a two-year deal and coming off offseason surgery to remove bone spurs from his elbow.
“In the spring, he wasn’t really throwing as effectively as he could, but as the season went on, he looked sharp for the first couple of weeks that he pitched,” Scioscia said. “It just deteriorated.”
Making the deterioration all the worse was the sense of unknown.
“Last year was frustrating because we couldn’t figure out what it was,” Burnett said. “I was throwing the ball somewhat well, it was just physically and mentally taking a toll on me to go out there, because I didn’t know what was going on. It hurt every time I threw the ball, and obviously you can’t have that. You have to get an answer. And for two or three months we couldn’t get any.”
Burnett’s eventual answers included a lengthy throwing program prescribed by Andrews, with extensive long tossing over the last two weeks – and a lot of physical therapy to break up mounds of scar tissue in and around his elbow.
He compared the sound of the tissue breaking to the crackle of Rice Krispies cereal.
“It’s not the most comfortable thing,” Burnett said. “And it’s kind of a scary thing. When it’s tearing, you almost feel like you might be hurting your elbow. It’s a painful process, but once it’s gone it’s gone, and it feels good.”
As for his offseason home, Burnett says he’s still learning about airplanes and aviation. He flies along with his neighbors during the offseason, but hasn’t yet invested in his own plane or a pilot license.
“I’m not allowed,” Burnett says, grinning, referring to the restrictions in the standard MLB contract. “But eventually.”
Eventually, he’ll prove to be a steady bullpen force, too, the Angels are hoping.
Contact the writer: pmoura@ocregister.com
