MIAMI – When the Nationals walked into the clubhouse at loanDepot park on Tuesday, a familiar face joined them.

Cade Cavalli, still rehabbing from his March 2023 Tommy John surgery in nearby West Palm Beach, once again made the trip down from the team’s spring training facility to spend some time around the team. Ever since his surgery, nearly every time the Nats have been in Miami, Cavalli has joined them.

But this time, he was not alone. Another familiar face joined him on the trip down to Miami. One that has not been seen since spring training.

Mason Thompson, also recovering from Tommy John, was all smiles as he walked into the clubhouse on Tuesday and was greeted by his teammates for the first time since his surgery in March. And while his target date to return is still sometime in 2025, he has been encouraged with how his own rehab process has gone.

“I feel great,” Thompson said. “Still a little ways out from throwing, I think sometime in October is kind of the set date. But I feel great. I feel, honestly, better than I did prior to surgery. Arm feels good. Body feels good. Feeling strong and just looking forward to getting back out there.”

Josiah Gray stood in the clubhouse at Nationals Park, his right arm protected by a complex brace, only 10 days removed from major elbow surgery, and had no trouble smiling wide.

“I love seeing everybody,” he said. “I love still being a part of this, still being part of the team and rooting for our guys. Just seeing everybody’s face yesterday was settling.”

In these early days of recovery, there isn’t much for Gray to do from a rehab standpoint. He takes part in about one hour of physical therapy a day, but that’s all for now. It’ll be months before he’s allowed to throw a baseball again. It’ll be at least a year before he’s pitching in a big league game again, maybe longer.

Gray isn’t the first to have Tommy John surgery, nor will he be the last. He’s already consulted with a number of friends in the game who have been through this before – notably Cade Cavalli, Jake Irvin and Joe Ross – and learned some valuable lessons about the proper mental approach to his recovery.

“This is a long process, but also you can learn a lot about yourself in this process,” he said. “You can come out of it a better athlete, a better pitcher, a better person. … I’m looking forward to seeing where I’m at this time next year.”

Josiah Gray underwent Tommy John surgery, plus an additional procedure to further stabilize his right elbow, officially ending his 2024 season and guaranteeing the Nationals’ Opening Day starter will miss the majority of the 2025 season as well.

Gray, who learned last week he had a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, flew to Dallas to be operated on today by orthopedist Keith Meister, who left open the possibility of performing only the less invasive internal brace procedure.

In the end, Meister determined the tear to be significant enough to warrant the full ligament replacement surgery named for the famed left-hander whose career was saved by the then-experimental procedure in the 1970s, plus the internal brace procedure, which reinforces the new elbow ligament.

Typical recovery time for Tommy John surgery is 12-to-18 months, so even in a best-case scenario, Gray would only be ready to return late in the 2025 season.

“He’s going to miss time, as we all know,” said manager Davey Martinez after announcing the news following tonight’s 12-3 loss to the Padres. “But he’s doing well. He feels good about it. … He’s got a long road, he knows that. But knowing him, he’s going to work really hard to get back.”

When Rays right-hander Tyler Glasnow took the mound on Oct. 8 in the American League Wild Card Series against the Guardians, no doubt one Orioles pitcher was watching closely. We don’t know that for certain but can assume that Baltimore lefty John Means watched with great interest.

Glasnow has gotten to where Means wants to go - to the end of the rehab process and back to a big league mound after Tommy John surgery. And he did it rather quickly.

In that game versus Cleveland, Glasnow threw five scoreless innings on two hits and 63 pitches. That was a nice success story for his comeback. No doubt the Rays may have handled him differently if his surgery had not taken place on Aug. 4, 2021. That meant if he could come back in around 13 months, he might help the Rays before this year was out. And Glasnow hit that deadline.

He pitched in four Triple-A games, starting out with a one-inning outing for Durham on Sept. 7, returning to a pro mound at about exactly 13 months out. He pitched seven innings in four games for Durham and then joined Tampa Bay for two late-season starts that led to that playoff outing. He threw three innings on 50 pitches Sept. 28 for the Rays and threw 3 2/3 on 64 pitches on Oct. 3. Then he made a successful playoff start 14 months and four days after his procedure.

If Means could be back throwing well in a big league game 14 months after his procedure – which took place April 27, 2022 – he would be back with the Orioles in late June next year. The team would probably be delighted with such a timeline especially if Means could quickly get his usual stuff back. It would be like making a mid-year trade for a top starting pitcher.

The Nationals' long-term pitching plans took another hit last week when prospect Seth Romero had Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ligament in his elbow. Romero, the Nationals' first-round pick in the 2017 draft and fifth-rated prospect entering the season according to Baseball America, is expected to miss the entire 2019 season while recovering from surgery. The procedure was performed Thursday in Los Angeles by orthopedist Neal ElAttrache, according to a Nats spokesman. It's a...

Today is the 43rd anniversary of the date a Dodgers pitcher tore an elbow ligament, an injury that eventually made his name not only a part of baseball vernacular, but a household term. We learned over the weekend that Nationals pitcher Joe Ross will have Tommy John surgery on Wednesday, a procedure that one-third of all major league pitchers had undergone as of 2013. Hundreds are performed each year. The Single-A Potomac Nationals even had an "Ode to Tommy John Surgery Statue" giveaway on...

Aaron Barrett, who was hoping to be in the final stages of rehab from Tommy John surgery and perhaps rejoin the Nationals bullpen before season's end, instead will be forced to undergo another major surgery Monday after fracturing his right elbow. Details of Barrett's latest injury weren't made public, but the Nationals said the 28-year-old reliever is scheduled to meet with orthopedist James Andrews on Monday. Andrews will repair the fractured elbow and evaluate the state of Barrett's...