Donovan details concussion recovery, aims to return before season's end

This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer's Mariners Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SEATTLE -- The dizziness is the first trigger that tells Brendan Donovan something is still off. Then, it's the nausea that forces him to shut things back down.

The Mariners infielder -- in the most trying year of his career -- hopes to salvage the final three weeks of his first season in Seattle.

And while things have improved since he suffered a concussion in the batting cages on Aug. 22, he's still dealing with symptoms that have prevented him from taking the next steps in mandated protocols to return.

“I get on the field, and I feel like I'm going to throw up,” Donovan said. “And then I take ground balls, and I have to take every other one because I'm going to throw up. So that's kind of been the process to this point.”

This update was initiated by Donovan, who approached MLB.com before Sunday’s 2-0 win over the A’s to provide an account to his recovery.

Per the club’s baseball operations policy, players on the concussion injured list are not made available to media. But Donovan wanted to provide clarity on his situation, and he did so through approval from a club official.

“With the concussion protocol, everything is a progression,” Donovan said. “So it's like, if you can't get over these hurdles, you can't progress. And we're kind of just stuck on these hurdles and keep having these symptoms. So that's why it's taken two weeks so far.”

Specifically, Donovan began ramping up baseball activity throughout the Mariners’ road trip through Toronto then Boston. And noticeably, he was seen showing fatigue as those workouts progressed.

"Things where it’s just not OK if we run him out there when he’s feeling those things, until he can get all the way through them and feel 100 percent,” Mariners general manager Justin Hollander said in a team-wide injury update on Thursday.

“The first thing that happens is I start to get a little dizzy,” Donovan said on Sunday. “The area that I got hit, kind of on the back of the head, has a lot to do with processing information, tracking with your eyes, and I guess just like relaying information.

“So getting into ground balls, having to track the ball and then catch the ball and then look for the object or like square the ball up -- as that starts to ramp up, I start to get dizzy and then the nausea comes out of nowhere. And if I don't shut it down, I throw up. So that’s not a fun one.”

As of Sunday, Donovan was optimistic ahead of a pregame workout after one of his best nights of rest since the incident. Donovan has been tracking his sleep -- and many other recovery patterns -- with an Oura ring that he purchased during Spring Training.

That was well before both the concussion and the left groin strain that landed him on the IL twice, meaning he has data to compare with from before either injury to tell him how his body is responding.

Beyond detailed sleep metrics, the wearable also outlines when the body is undergoing physiological stress -- and as such, helps him correlate what might be causing it.

“It's helped me know that some days, even though I might be feeling OK, this is just more hard data, so it's like, maybe I shouldn't push as hard,” Donovan said. “But on days where [the ring] showed me that I didn't sleep good, that [dizziness] threshold came on sooner, whereas days that I slept better, I was able to do more. So that's been interesting.”

Donovan also confirmed that he was not wearing a helmet when suffering the concussion, upon absorbing a ball to the head in the cage just minutes before first pitch against the Cubs for a Saturday afternoon game. Now, he said, all hitters are wearing them for overhand throws.

“There are a lot of things that I'm going to change this year,” Donovan said.

After Sunday’s interview, Donovan was seen jogging in the outfield with ear buds and sunglasses -- both to help with light and sound that can also bring on symptoms.

Even with the Mariners’ playoff hopes on life support, and with uncertainty on his immediate horizon, Donovan -- who's played in just 39 of Seattle's 144 games -- does not want to give up on 2026.

“With brain injuries -- yes, I want to play, but I also want to be able to like hang out with my kids and talk to my kids and things like that,” Donovan said. “So that's always in the back of my mind, too. But it's just like, I still want to play. I've been very vocal about that, and I've kind of had that taken away from me multiple times this year. So that's kind of a tough pill swallow.”