The truth about Tommy John surgery

Andrew Chin hasn't given up the dream.

Two months before most minor-league players will report to training camps in Arizona and Florida, the 26-year-old Newton, Mass., native doesn’t have a contract but does have plenty of optimism.

He’s throwing and working out in Orange County, Calif., under the eye of Tom House, the founder of the National Pitching Association. In the last 1½ years, he’s completely revamped his regimen as it relates to pitching, as well as nutrition and strength and conditioning.

"I think," he said, "I’m a better pitcher now than I’ve ever been."

That Chin still hasn’t given up on his dream wouldn’t surprise anyone who watched the 6-foot-1 left-hander star at Buckingham, Browne & Nichols and in showcase tournaments nearly a decade ago. So impressive was he that the Toronto Blue Jays spent a fifth-round draft pick on him back in 2011.

But the straight line to The Show never happened. Instead, like a growing number of pitchers from the region, his career was detoured, pointed down a physically and emotionally draining path with the news that he would need ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction.

Tommy John surgery.