Austen Williams close to all the way back, preps now for 2020

It was good to see Austen Williams back in the Nationals clubhouse during the Orioles series. The right-hander has missed 116 games on the injured list with a sprained right AC joint shoulder injury. He was originally put on the IL on April 19.

The Texas State hurler appeared in two games against the Giants April 16-17 and got shelled, allowing six runs on five hits with just one out recorded. Incredibly, his ERA is listed at 162.00. After those games he felt significant shoulder soreness. The team doctors recommended rehab instead of surgery.

A quick rehab in Florida and then back to pursue his dream of playing in the bigs, right? No problem.

Unfortunately, that quick rehab turned into six weeks.

"No surgery, there wasn't anything structural," Williams said when the doctors first diagnosed the shoulder issue. "So that was good, as far as the long-term outlook. But I just had to take a pretty significant break, shut down, because when I first got to Florida we tried to get back as soon as possible, obviously, and it just didn't take after I got a cortisone shot and then worked my way back into a game in Florida in extended (spring training). After that game I still didn't feel right, so they just went ahead and shut me down for about five to six weeks."

Williams' shoulder continued to bark. So a long rehab program was put in place as the next step.

"Didn't touch a baseball for six weeks," Williams said. "Did as much as I could strength- and conditioning-wise. Obviously, I couldn't be lifting heavy weights, doing much with my shoulder at all, but just trying to stay in shape for when I could start throwing again."

Williams returned to pitch in real games July 23 for the Rookie-level Gulf Coast Nationals. He then pitched in five games for Double-A Harrisburg between August 3 and 15. With the Senators, Williams went 0-1 with a 10.13 ERA, but did not allow a hit or a run and threw two strikeouts in his last two outings.

"As far as my shoulder health, everything is back to normal," Williams noted. "But it's taking more time to get my stuff all the way back and see my velocity get back to normal. So that's the issue right now, is really fine-tuning stuff.

"I think the arm speed is the thing I'm trying to get back, and that doesn't necessarily mean my arm strength, just getting the timing in my mechanics back. Because with the arm speed you'll see the velocity go up and then I'll obviously be able to spin the breaking balls better, so its hand-in-hand with my fastball."

Williams said one of the toughest parts is watching the team from afar when he had such high hopes to contribute this season. Especially as the Nats has won 50 of their last 74 games during their recent turnaround run.

"It's been disappointing because so much of the season, especially the way they are playing, how crazy the season has been and how good they are right now," Williams said. "I had a great spring training and I thought I'd be able to play a pretty big role this year. It's not the way it panned out, but I think the bright side is I'm healthy and it's not something that is going to affect me long-term. I think it took a little longer than I expected to get back, but it's not something that's going to bother me for the rest of my career."

Right now, Williams' main focus is working on slight adjustments to his mechanics to get his spin rates back up.

"Everything as far as what they expected out of me the first couple of innings back, rehab-wise, it looked really good," he said. "And then it was in Double-A that I started seeing things that I needed to keep working on. It was just part of the process. I felt really good."

The Fort Worth, Texas, native said it is still too early to decide what his offseason plan will be. But he knows that when the weather permits he will head back to Florida to continue rehabbing.

"A lot of it is up in the air," Williams said. "It all depends on how I start feeling and how my stuff starts looking. I'll be going back to Florida next week to keep working on a throwing program and start getting off the mound again. The offseason, I'm not really sure what it looks like."

Williams demonstrated extreme promise with a solid 2018 campaign, going 3-3 with a 1.19 ERA, two saves and an astounding 89 strikeouts in just 68 innings over 32 games. The 26-year-old's spring training went really well, and then the shoulder injury occurred. Now his goal is to return to full strength and refine his mechanics in preparation for 2020 spring training.