A.J. Griffin finishes long journey back with Texas Rangers

The day that for two years A.J. Griffin had been telling himself was going to come finally arrived Friday.

He was told in spring training of 2014 the news no pitcher wants to hear — that his ulnar collateral ligament was ruined and needed to be replaced. A year later he encountered a shoulder injury along the comeback trail from Tommy John surgery.

Then, after being invited to Texas Rangers spring training and beating out all other candidates for the fifth spot in the rotation, the right-hander had to stew in uncertainty for a week while the Rangers looked far and wide for a better option.

Nothing else fell in the Rangers’ laps. Griffin already had, and he returned to a major league mound for the first time since Sept. 24, 2013, in a late game at Angel Stadium.

There were no shortcuts on the way back.

“It was long, longer than I would have liked. But you know what? Good things take time to come,” Griffin said. “I’m excited for this opportunity. I really don’t know how to put it into words. That’s odd for me.

“You’ve always got to believe in yourself and just keep grinding, and that’s what I’ve done. I’m thankful the Rangers gave me an opportunity to come and pitch and do whatever I can to help this team win some ballgames.”

Griffin hadn’t pitched since March 29 before taking on the Los Angeles Angels, but stayed active by playing catch daily and throwing bullpen sessions Saturday and Tuesday.

The Rangers staked him to a 3-0 lead before he threw his first pitch, and he responded with a scoreless first inning despite a two-out walk to Mike Trout.

Griffin allowed three runs on six hits in six innings the Rangers defeated the Angels 7-3.

Within that first inning, Griffin showed what allowed him to outlast fellow righties Chi Chi Gonzalez, Nick Martinez and Jeremy Guthrie, among others, during spring training to win the rotation spot that is expected to be filled by Yu Darvish next month.

Griffin was on the attack, even in the duel with Trout, and he mixed speeds effectively. He threw an 89 mph fastball to Albert Pujols, then got the first baseman to ground weakly to first base on a 68 mph curveball on the next pitch.

During spring training, Griffin threw strikes, lots of them, in 18 Cactus League innings and showed a knack for the strikeout, registering 19 of them, with an ability to change speeds.

He also allowed six home runs, a by-product of constantly being around the plate and something that doesn’t worry him in the least or the Rangers too much.

“I like the fact that of pitchability and strike throwing, and there’s a history there of success,” manager Jeff Banister said. “We just felt like he was going to give us a better opportunity to keep us in ballgames and win ballgames for us.”

Most important, Griffin showed that he is healthy and that his arm can recover between starts as it did in his first two seasons in the majors, 2012 and 2013 with Oakland. The Rangers might not be expecting him to throw complete games each time out, but six innings shouldn’t be out of the question, even though he logged only 14  1/3 innings the past two seasons.

“We’ll continue to watch that,” Banister said. “It’s an absolute challenge to know what he’s going to be after 50 innings, what he’s going to be after 60 innings, what he’s going to be after 100 innings. Right now, he’s a healthy pitcher.”

Griffin took a 2-2 career record and a 2.81 ERA against the Angels into Friday. Originally from the San Diego area, Griffin was expecting a large group on hand to watch his return.

It was a nice touch on the end of a long road back to the majors. The day he had been telling himself was going to come finally arrived, even after the Rangers dragged out the process of naming him their No. 5 starters.

“I feel like two years is pretty long, so five more days is no big deal,” Griffin said. “It’s cool to be here and to be able to go out and compete with these guys.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 9:54 PM with the headline "A.J. Griffin finishes long journey back with Texas Rangers."