David Laurila of Fangraphs has an interview with Erik Tolman, a Nats lefty from the 2021 draft who is relieving in Rochester.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/sunday-notes-nationals-prospect-erik-tolman-has-a-remarkable-backstory/He was a high profile prep player who went to Arizona State but was hit with a near-constant string of injuries starting his last year there. He only pitched 3 games his last year in college before his 1st surgery, so he fell to the 14th round in a Rizzo "we draft pitchers who fall due to UCLs" special. He finally got well enough in 2023 to throw 5 games at Fredericksburg only to have this happen:
“I started the game, and when I was running out to the mound for the third inning, I jumped over the base line like every baseball player does. My foot got stuck in the turf. My momentum was falling forward, I tried to catch myself, and my whole leg dislocated.
“It was a torn ACL, a torn PCL, a torn LCL, the hamstring tore off the bone,” continued Tolman. “And then the more serious damage was the nerve damage in my right foot. The perennial nerve ruptured, which resulted in a foot drop. It was paralyzed for over a year. I had surgery to fix it, so now I’m only limited in my mobility. I can only go up and down. I can’t go in or out at all, and I still can’t feel the top of my foot. I had to teach myself to walk again. I basically had to rewire my brain in order to walk, run, or even drive.”
If Tolman were right-handed, one thing he wouldn’t be doing is pitching.
“It would have been career-ending, for sure,” agreed the reliever, who has a 5.60 ERA and a 33.3% strikeout rate over 19 appearances comprising 17-and-two-thirds innings. “On your back leg, you have to be able to rotate internally. Fortunately enough, I was born a lefty. Being my landing leg, I just have to stabilize it. With all the rehab, I’ve come a long way. I’m proud of myself.”
Oh, Paul Skenes was his high school catcher.
As for how he's doing, he's had a couple of rough appearances early on, and one 3 run, no out appearance on 5/1, but since 4/10, he's made 15 appearances, thrown 15 innings, with a 3.60 ERA (3 runs outside that 5/1 appearance), with 26Ks but 11 BBs. 38.2 K%, 16.2 BB%, with a .211 AVG / .387 BABIP. No homers helps.
https://www.fangraphs.com/players/erik-tolman/sa3021719/game-log?position=P&gds=2026-04-10&gde=2026-10-31&season=&type=-2Laurila also talked to Brian Daubach, the hitting coach at Rochester, about his experiences hitting against Greeg Maddux, who he owned, and Mike Mussina, who owned him.
