Sal Frelick entered the 2023 season with optimism about being called up and fulfilling every young player’s lifelong aspirations of playing Major League Baseball with the Milwaukee Brewers.
It didn’t all go according to plan for Frelick (Lexington, Mass.), the former Boston College outfielder and No. 15 overall draft pick in 2021 who contributed to Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic before embarking on a regular season that included his MLB debut on July 22.
But when he required surgery to repair a ligament in his thumb that tore while sliding into second base during a mid-April game with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds, he thought he might not reach that ultimate baseball milestone in 2023.
“I was pretty upset at that point and started to think that maybe it wasn’t gonna happen this year. I was out for a little over two months, so I wasn’t expecting anything crazy when I came back,” said Frelick, who was MLB.com’s No. 30 overall prospect last spring. “To my surprise, I think everything that happened from there was really just (living) a dream.”
