Back from 'bigger than baseball' injury, Bigge ready to compete

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- Hunter Bigge jogged in from the Rays' bullpen at Charlotte Sports Park late Sunday morning, scaled the mound and challenged hitters with what fellow reliever Garrett Cleavinger called “electric” stuff. His fastball was firm. His breaking pitches darted all over. He tested out his newest weapon, a “kick-changeup” he developed over the offseason.

Watching the hard-throwing right-hander throw live batting practice, you would have no idea what he went through only eight months ago.

Bigge was sitting in the Rays’ dugout at George M. Steinbrenner Field during the seventh inning of a 4-1 loss to the Orioles on June 19, on the injured list due to a right lat strain, when he was struck on the right side of his face by Adley Rutschman’s 105.1 mph foul ball. Bigge was carted off the field and taken to a Tampa hospital, where he underwent surgery to repair multiple facial fractures, including a broken orbital bone.

“The five minutes after I got hit was definitely the scariest five minutes of my life,” Bigge said. “Once I got to the hospital, and they're like, 'Yeah, you have a bunch of broken bones, but you're gonna be good,' I was kind of all right.”

Recounting his injuries in front of his locker earlier this week, Bigge said his right cheekbone was “blown to smithereens … just a bunch of dust.” He broke a few other bones on that side of his face, and doctors found fractures on his left side resulting from the shock of the impact. For a month or two, loud noises left him skittish.

At the end of a grueling recovery process, Bigge was physically left with a pair of metal plates in his face but no vision issues or lasting effects after he was cleared. Mentally, it totally changed his perspective heading into this Spring Training.

“I've dealt with a lot of injuries over the course of my career, and this one just felt different. It felt a lot bigger than baseball,” Bigge said. “I was like, 'Why do I give so much of a [crap] about baseball?' You know what I mean?

“I was like, 'I love my family. I love my friends. There's a lot of [stuff] outside of baseball that matters a lot to me, and baseball is something I do for fun.' Trying to approach it with that mindset this year.”

Bigge will spend the spring competing for a spot in the Rays' bullpen, which should have a few spots up for grabs after high-leverage relievers Griffin Jax, Cleavinger, Edwin Uceta and Bryan Baker.

The 27-year-old right-hander has been limited to 32 Major League appearances since debuting for the Cubs in 2024, but he’s pitched well in those outings and has always had late-inning stuff. And he came into this camp saying he feels “the best I've felt in a really long time playing baseball.”

What he went through last year made him more mindful of his overall health. The time it took for his face to heal gave his arm extra time to rest. And he spent about a month playing winter ball for Aguilas Cibaeñas in the Dominican Republic, where Rays bullpen coach Jorge Moncada serves as the team’s pitching coach.

Bigge said that experience from mid-October through mid-November was “super important.” Having not pitched since May 1, it gave him a chance to get back on the mound, finish the year healthy and move onto what felt like a normal offseason.

And if there were any lingering concerns about how Bigge might handle pitching after such a traumatic incident, he pushed those aside. He’s still more mindful of his surroundings in the dugout, and he was a little nervous the first time he faced hitters in the Dominican Republic. But when he got into a game for the first time, the feeling was different.

“I was really grateful to be out there and able to play a little bit more freely,” Bigge said. “Just because it was such a scary thing, I wasn't sure if I was gonna be OK. And now, I feel really grateful to be able to play baseball. That's kind of where my head was at and where it continues to be at.”

His coaches have picked up on that already. Manager Kevin Cash noticed “a little bit more confidence” after only a few days in camp, and Moncada said the hard-working, hard-throwing righty showed up in tremendous shape.

“He can be everything we're looking for in a pitcher. He has four pitches, he throws strikes, throws hard, he competes,” Moncada said. “Now, you've got a different experience that makes him more comfortable.”