Mantei's comeback off to good start

02/16/2008 6:30 PM ET
Mantei's comeback off to good start
When healthy, reliever has live arm made for late-inning work
By Jason Beck / MLB.com

LAKELAND, Fla. -- If Matt Mantei needed to make a first impression in Spring Training, Saturday was a pretty good one. But first impressions have never been the obstacle for him.

Working off of a side mound along the back fields of the Tigertown complex, Mantei fired one pitch after another, popping the mitt with each one. If he was supposed to have any rust after his brief retirement, it wasn't showing. For the Michigan native and former Major League closer, this was a good day.

As long as he's pitching, though, it's hard for him to have a bad day.

"Just getting out there sweating instead of freezing on the tennis court where I was throwing? Yeah, it's nice to get out there," Mantei said with a grin. "It feels much better."

The indoor tennis court at the gym in his hometown of Stevensville, Mich., was where this comeback took shape over the offseason. After a decade in the big leagues with the warm-weather Florida Marlins and Arizona Diamondbacks, Mantei was trying to pitch in the middle of the Michigan winter. He'd throw off the flat ground -- or in this case, the hardcourt -- to see how his arm felt.

Mantei had no idea how it would work out, but he had to give it one last shot. As his wife told him, he'd hate himself at age 40 if he didn't. After all the injuries, he's still just 34 years old.

"Plus, my son's five," Mantei said. "I want him to see me play. I want him to see his dad on the field. I want to have him come in the clubhouse, things that other kids don't get to do."

When he threw for Tigers officials at Comerica Park last month, it was his first time on a mound since he pitched for Triple-A Toledo two years ago, and even he was a little surprised how well it went.

It was enough to land him here, back in Florida, for one more shot in the same clubhouse where he made his last Spring Training try two years ago. If he doesn't make it, it won't be because he isn't a good pitcher.

"Matt impresses everybody all the time," manager Jim Leyland said. "He's got a great arm. He's been blessed with a great arm. Health has always been his issue."

If his arm is a blessing, health is his curse. It's why Mantei is here at this stage of his career after his last full, healthy season in 1999.

He saved 32 games that year between Florida and Arizona. The next season, he had two short, separate stints on the disabled list with bicep tendinitis and shoulder weakness. Ligament reconstruction surgery in his elbow cost him virtually all of 2001 and half of '02. He racked up 29 saves in 2003 but missed a month with shoulder tendinitis.

Another surgery, this one to remove a bone spur in Mantei's labrum, cost him most of 2004. Finally, when he was re-establishing himself with the Red Sox in 2005, a bad step behind third base wrenched his left ankle, requiring season-ending surgery.

"Sometimes," Mantei admitted, "I just wish I could've been healthy my whole career, just to see what I could've done or where I could be now."

He was pitching well here two years ago when another injury stopped him. Again, it had nothing to do with his arm. Of all things, it was a strained oblique muscle.

"After I got hurt in Spring Training [in 2006], I think that really ticked me off a little bit," Mantei said. "As hard as I worked and all the things that we do around here, that I can pull an oblique muscle, I thought maybe this just isn't meant to be."

Watching Opening Day a few weeks later convinced him to try it again at Triple-A Toledo. He dominated for a handful of outings, but decided after his fifth game that his heart wasn't in it. He packed his bags after the game, loaded up his car and headed home. The injury that spring had deflated his spirit.

"Physically, I was close to where I wanted to be," Mantei said. "But mentally, I wasn't anywhere near where I should've been, especially to pitch in the big leagues."

If he gets hurt this time, he'll do the same thing. There are no more surgeries in his future. But if he's healthy, he wants to see it through, even if it means starting the year back in Toledo for a few weeks.

"I'm not looking to make this team out of camp," Mantei said. "I'm not looking for March 31. I'm looking for when I'm ready, when they're ready to have me."

Most likely, that's what it would take, since the Tigers need to be convinced he can hold up for more than a few weeks of Spring Training games. Detroit has until April 28 to either get him to the big leagues or to grant him his release if he asks. Even with the void in the seventh inning, they have enough options -- enough younger arms -- that they don't have to rush him to the bullpen.

Still, the numbers don't lie. Mantei's last significant pitching time in 2003 earned him a 2.62 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 55 innings. He knows how to get outs, if not how to get out of the way of the injury bug.

If he can't do it this time, he'll have no hard feelings. He wants to enjoy this, and he especially wants his son, Hayden Matthew, to appreciate it. He still doesn't have a clear idea that his father played baseball for a living -- and still wants to.

As the elder Mantei took him through the clubhouse the other day, he was starting to get it.

"This is going to be fun for me this year," Mantei said. "This is a good group of guys. Like I said, if I'm in Toledo, I'm in Toledo. I've been here for a week now, and I'm enjoying it."

If Mantei keeps on pitching like he did Saturday, as early as it is, he'll be laughing all the way to the big leagues. But even he isn't going to get overconfident.

"Everything's great," he said. "I feel good -- for now."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.