ARLINGTON -- In the time it takes for him to grab his phone and bring up his camera roll, newly promoted Nationals reliever Erik Tolman can pull up videos of the best thing that ever happened to him as a baseball player -- and the worst.
Tolman, a former 14th-round Draft pick in 2021 out of Arizona State, was told early Tuesday afternoon by the coaching staff at Triple-A Rochester that he was headed to the big leagues. They surreptitiously filmed the encounter, which as is often the case when players get promoted for the first time, began with a ruse.
They asked the lefty if he’d be interested in pitching in winter ball. He was caught off guard -- even more so after they asked him if he’d like to pitch in Texas.
Then the realization sunk in: That’s where the big league team was. After an unusually arduous journey through a minefield of injuries, Tolman was finally bound for the Majors.
“I was speechless ... I haven’t stopped smiling today or yesterday,” Tolman said before Wednesday’s game against the Rangers.
It’s easy to see why the callup put a lasting grin on the 27-year-old’s face. He navigated a hard path to get here.
“I’ve been through a lot,” Tolman said.
First, he underwent Tommy John surgery his junior year at Arizona State. He didn’t pitch at all in 2022, rehabbing for more than a year -- but then he sustained a second elbow injury, requiring another Tommy John surgery.
Then, after another year of rehab, came the worst moment of all.
He recalls the date immediately: Aug. 2, 2023. It was his sixth start for Single-A Fredericksburg. After two uneventful, scoreless innings, he trotted to the mound for the third. On his way, just like countless superstitious pitchers at every level of the sport do all the time, he jumped over the foul line -- but he caught the turf with his spike and came down awkwardly.
Later that night, as Tolman recalled Wednesday, he was laid up in a bed in the emergency room listening to doctors and nurses talk to him for five minutes about the possibility of amputating his lower leg. That weird landing had caused a stunning amount of damage.
“I tore every ligament in my knee, [my] hamstring tore off my bone, and then the peroneal nerve ruptured,” Tolman said. “I lost all feeling in my foot, which resulted in a foot drop. So a handful of years later, with a bunch of surgeries later, we're back, we're playing. I might not be my 23-year-old self with [not being] as athletic, but I'm still able to pitch pretty damn good.”
Tolman was 3-2 with a 5.23 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 31 innings over 32 games with Rochester this season. In 2025, he pitched at Single-A, High-A and Double-A, posting a combined 3.67 ERA and 96 strikeouts over 95 2/3 innings.
If his 2023 leg injury had happened to his left leg instead, Tolman said, his career would’ve been over. But even as it was, the injury still posed an existential threat to his life in baseball.
“I was told by medical experts that nothing's impossible, but it's going to be extremely hard to come back,” he said.
“Every time I got injured, I'm like, this might be it. ... You're just in your bed, hanging out, bored, not much to do,” Tolman said. “And I guess in those moments of all the YouTube videos I looked at [for] motivation and inspiration, I kept my head up.”
The Nationals optioned right-hander Yovanny Cruz to Rochester on Wednesday in a corresponding move to make room for Tolman. The way Tolman managed to claw his way back says a lot about his character, Nationals manager Blake Butera said Wednesday.
“This is somebody that’s not going to quit, and not give up,” Butera said. “When he’s dealt a tough hand, he’s not going to make excuses and say, ‘Woe is me.’ He’s going to find a way to get through it and come out over the top of it and ahead of it, and that’s what he’s done.”
Before his travails, Tolman pitched at El Toro High School in Lake Forest, Calif., the same school Paul Skenes pitched for a few years later. When Tolman makes his debut, he’ll be the fifth El Toro alumnus to play in the Majors, joining Nolan Arenado, Matt Chapman, Austin Romine and Skenes.