Indians no-hitter boosts De Jong’s quest to return to big leagues

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Chase De Jong isn’t supposed to be here.

Back in 2019, De Jong, a former 2021 second-round MLB Draft pick out of high school, was nearly altogether out of professional baseball.

A brutal stretch over 10 starts and 45 innings for Triple-A Rochester, an affiliate of the Washington Nationals, left De Jong looking for a roster spot on an Independent League team for the remainder of the 2019 season.

In most cases, the Independent League marks the end of the road for professional baseball players chasing their big-league dreams.

De Jong spent 2019 and 2020 pitching in the Independent League, throwing well enough to keep his dream alive and earning a minor league contract from the Minnesota Twins.

“I’ve had to reinvent myself, going to Independent ball, and I’m a totally different pitcher than when I first got into the big leagues,” De Jong said.

Despite battling nagging knee pain during the 2020 season, De Jong impressed early with the Triple-A Indianapolis Indians (2-0, 3.60 ERA in four starts) and was quickly promoted to its major league affiliate, the Pittsburgh Pirates, a year ago.

Once with the Pirates, De Jong threw 47 innings, the most innings of any season of his major league career, gutting through the knee pain for the chance to catch on in Pittsburgh.

During a July 19 start against the Diamondbacks in Arizona, an 89 mph line drive struck De Jong in the knee, ultimately forcing him to leave the game.

The unlucky incident turned out to be what may be the biggest break in De Jong’s professional career.

“After I took a line drive off my knee in Arizona, I finally agreed to the MRI the team was trying to give me,” De Jong said. “I didn’t want to know what was going on in there, because I wanted to keep competing. After taking the line drive, that was finally a sign to me to get it checked out.”

Pittsburgh team doctors and two outside experts confirmed season-ending surgery was desperately needed, and, despite the diagnosis, De Jong felt a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

“I had no cartilage in my knee; I had been bone-on-bone for a while, just playing through that,” De Jong said. “I had a grade 4 tear through my meniscus, which only goes up to four, so I had a pretty big valley going through there. I needed two 16-millimeter bone plugs, and it was a long road back.”

De Jong rehabbed seven days a week this offseason at Florida Sports Physio and is off to a scorching start to the 2022 season at Triple-A Indianapolis.

After firing four innings of one-run ball in the season opener against Omaha, he took the mound for his second start of the season this past Wednesday night at Saint Paul.

Playing in 15-degree temperatures with a wind chill that lowered that number even further, De Jong put together seven innings of no-hit baseball backed up by 9 strikeouts.

With the Indians in front and the game speeding by, right fielder Cal Mitchell laid out for a diving catch toward the right-field foul line to keep the no-hitter intact.

“It’s funny, I didn’t know that there was a no-hitter in the sixth and a fan behind me said, ‘Hey, do you know what’s going on right now?”” Mitchell said. “And I said, ‘We’re winning?’ [and] he goes, ‘No, look at the scoreboard!’”

Indianapolis relievers Austin Brice and Yerry De Los Santos held on in the eighth and ninth and completed history. The Indians had their first no-hitter in a decade and the 15th in club history.

“They don’t happen that often and it’s something special,” De Jong said. “As much as you want to treat it like any other win, act like you’ve been there before, you want to give it the reverence it deserves. From start to finish, catcher Jason Delay was back there grinding, working his butt off. And I said it before, on a night where it could have been really easy to mail it in and check out, he was a warrior back there and got it done.”

De Jong deflecting the praise is no surprise to his teammates.

At home in Indianapolis, De Jong and his wife Christina are new parents to a baby boy, giving extra meaning to this impressive comeback.

“My wife’s seen the peaks and valleys, and I have a lot of good friends who have been with me every step of the way, going back to getting released, and going to Independent ball, and getting back to the big leagues,” De Jong said. “I’m very close with my parents, and I have two brothers who have seen me at my highs and my lows. Those are the people that I know I can turn to and will pick up the phone any day.”

If the call back to the big leagues is coming again this spring, it appears that this time, De Jong is ready to bring his best stuff yet.