Major League Baseball

Former top pick Mark Appel has sights set on the big leagues once again

Published Aug. 10, 2021 9:42 a.m. ET

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By Jordan Shusterman
FOX Sports MLB Writer

Eighteen months.

That’s how long Mark Appel went without picking up a baseball after he decided to step away from the game before the 2018 season. 

Five years prior, the Astros — the team Appel grew up rooting for in Houston — made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 MLB Draft. With an ideal 6-foot-5 frame, smooth mechanics and a deep arsenal headlined by a 98-mph fastball, the right-hander from Stanford seemed like the rare can’t-miss pitching prospect. The overall package compelled Houston to select Appel over the consensus best hitter in the draft, Kris Bryant, who went second to the Cubs.

Appel's first few seasons in pro ball were solid, if unspectacular. He appeared in the Futures Game and reached Triple-A Fresno in 2015, albeit with a middling ERA and underwhelming strikeout numbers. Still, Appel appeared to be on schedule. He’d be a big-league pitcher, surely.

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Then, on Dec. 12, 2015, Appel was shipped by his hometown team to the Phillies as part of a larger trade for closer Ken Giles. It was a surprising detour, certainly, but not one that would seem to prevent him from reaching the majors.

Injuries proved otherwise. After just eight starts, elbow surgery cut Appel's 2016 season short in June. Shoulder problems and further elbow issues persisted throughout 2017, limiting him to 82 innings in Triple-A and preventing him from pitching well enough to earn what had suddenly become an elusive call-up. Largely through no fault of his own, the can’t-miss prospect appeared to be missing wildly.

By the end of 2017, Appel — still pitching through the pain — felt like a shell of himself. 

"I came back in ‘17, and my shoulder still wasn’t feeling good," he recalled. "I realized I had no command, my velo was dropping, I’m struggling to even get to the next game, and even when I’m playing, it’s not productive.

"That whole process from when I went on the IL to when I stepped away from the game was six or seven months of figuring out who I am and what I’m about. That was really tough." 

Although he didn’t formally announce his decision to step away until February 2018, his mind was made up shortly after the 2017 season. Appel had to take a break from the game he loved. So he went home to Houston. 

Appel put his career on pause, but that didn’t mean he was shutting baseball out of his life. When his former college teammate and roommate at Stanford, Stephen Piscotty, was in town with the A’s the next season, Appel attended some games at Minute Maid Park in support of his friend. 

Was it difficult to return to the ballpark of the franchise that had made him the first overall pick but never saw him deliver on his potential? 

"[You] probably could have expected me to have a lot of weird feelings being at an Astros game, but I didn’t have any bitterness," Appel said. "There was no feeling other than, ‘I love this game, and I’ve been hurt, and it’s kinda hard to play when you’re hurt.’" 

As for whether any Astros fans recognized their former top pick: "Once or twice. Fans online are a lot different than fans in person, but people were, in general, really nice. But that didn’t happen too often. Plus, I was wearing an A’s hat, going incognito," he added with a laugh.

Staying around the game kept a potential return in the back of Appel’s mind. "I realized that there may be something for me in the future, but I didn’t know," he said.

Still, he stayed focused on making the most of his time away from the game. He went backpacking with his dad in Colorado in July, a month he hadn’t had off from baseball in longer than he could remember. He traveled to see his college friends in California. He spent ample time with his family in Houston.

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A desire to return to the mound emerged by the end of 2018, and Appel opted to have shoulder surgery to repair partial tears in his labrum and rotator cuff. After all, when he announced he was stepping away, saying he was taking an "indefinite break" from the game, Appel had never suggested he was finished.

"When I left, I didn’t want to put any expectation on taking a one-year break or three-month break. I didn’t know how long I needed," he said. But he never closed the book. "I wouldn’t have had surgery unless I had that itch."

One thousand, three hundred forty-five days. That’s the time between Appel’s final outing before he stepped away — a one-inning rehab appearance for the Gulf Coast League Phillies on Sept. 2, 2017 — and his first official start on the comeback trail for Double-A Reading on May 8, 2021. 

The first batter Appel faced was top Tigers prospect Riley Greene, who had just finished sixth grade when Appel was selected No. 1 in 2013. Greene grounded out to short. The comeback was on. 

Now 30, Appel is back in Triple-A trying to finally realize his big-league dream. 

"I feel like I have a second lease on a career because now I’m healthy," he said. 

His numbers on the mound — a 5.61 ERA in 51.1 innings, with 46 strikeouts and 38 walks — might not look pretty. But the strongest indicator of how he believes his comeback is going is the number zero, which is the number of days Appel has spent on the injured list in 2021. 

"The goal for this year all along was just to get healthy to where I can start working on things and try and see where I am and what I can improve on," he said. "I’m excited for the rest of the season and this offseason." 

The multiyear process to return to action has been trying both physically and mentally, and like everything else, it was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Through it all, though, Appel has gained a clearer perspective on his career moving forward. 

"There’s a way you go about your business when you have this weight of expectation and knowing that, gosh, by a lot of people’s estimation, it’s been a disappointment of a career," he said. 

Appel is well aware that the list of No. 1 overall picks to never reach the big leagues is short, but he has found no use in dwelling on that. 

"Being able to step away and actually have peace with all the work I had done," he said. "Knowing, man, things didn’t work out how I wanted, not even close to what I wanted ... but that doesn’t mean it’s all been for nothing. Life is so much more than performance on the field."

Regardless of whether he reaches Philadelphia in 2021, Appel is confident that with additional throwing programs and more time on the mound, he can rediscover the higher velocity and sharper stuff of his earlier years. 

For him, lack of health was always the roadblock. His love for the game never dissipated, and he’s thrilled to be back competing on a regular basis.

"It has been a fun few months."

Jordan Shusterman is half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball analyst for FOX Sports. He lives in D.C. but is a huge Seattle Mariners fan and loves watching the KBO, which means he doesn't get a lot of sleep. You can follow him on Twitter @j_shusterman_.

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