"I love to suffer, as long as I’m chasing my goal,” Ty Adcock’s wild and long ride to the majors
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – Relief pitcher Ty Adcock hasn’t had an easy road to the big leagues, and it certainly hasn’t been a conventional one for the Elon university pitcher. With the Seattle Mariners getting hit with the injury bug throughout their pitching staff, Adcock was called upon on June 12th to take the roster spot of right-handed reliever Penn Murfee, who had re-aggravated an elbow injury that he had just come off the injured list for. Now up with the club that drafted him back in 2019, Adcock is making the most of his opportunity after a roller coaster journey to his MLB debut.
Seattle Mariners relief pitcher Ty Adcock plays catch ahead of the Mariners game against the Miami Marlins on June 14th, 2022 (Photo by Chris Lu)
The Elon to Seattle pipeline
In recent memory, there are three connections between Elon University and the Seattle Mariners organization, with two of them being pitchers that are currently at the big-league level. While Adcock has already been mentioned, starting pitcher George Kirby and former coach Sean McGrath are the other members of the Elon -> Mariners club that has been strong for Seattle. McGrath is now with the Iowa Hawkeyes baseball team, serving as their assistant coach, but previously spent time with the Modesto Nuts, Everett Aquasox, and Arkansas Travelers in the Mariners minor league system. While he isn’t in it now, McGrath’s impact on Adcock is apparent and something that the organization notes for their growth and development to get them to this point.
Tommy John stunts the timeline
The two words “Tommy John” are a nightmare for any baseball fan, player, or team, let alone a pitcher who’s facing the scary surgery that will take you out for anywhere from 12-16 months. Adcock had to deal with the dreaded surgery as the third sort of major hurdle that he’s faced in his young career, having dealt with a shoulder issue in 2019 and then the COVID Pandemic in 2020 reaching a height. In college at Elon, Adcock was a two-way player, spending time as a right fielder while pitching as well. While Adcock succeeded in being a quality player on both ends, it caused enough wear and tear on his right shoulder which required surgery, taking him out of the short season campaign in 2019 after being drafted by the Mariners.
Following the missed short season campaign, obviously the COVID-19 Pandemic wiped out any real sort of season for anybody, making it two straight years where Adcock wasn’t able to continue his development and improvement with the resources he’d had throughout his career, potentially stunting his growth and providing a massive speed bump on his path to the MLB. Following those big bumps, Adcock was assigned to the Mariners AA affiliate, the Arkansas Travelers, in a solid jump in his career. Then, things hit the fan once again. Adcock needed Tommy John Surgery, something that could’ve potentially ended his playing career.
“You’re gonna have to meet me in Seattle tomorrow”
Following the three major daggers to his potential furthered playing career, Adcock continued to push ahead and ensure that he would fulfill his dream of playing in the Major Leagues. Perhaps, though, he didn’t quite envision it looking like this, being called up to the bigs in the month of June on an off-day with his current club, the Travelers. Adcock got the call and had to let his wife and parents know that they had to meet him in Seattle, Washington. They didn’t believe him at first, requiring extra assurance that this was actually happening and that he was making the jump to the major leagues. Finally, after a group facetime call with his wife and parents, they were all convinced and went to work to get the next ticket that they could to Seattle from North Carolina, where he was born.