Calvin Ziegler, Ontario’s top-ranked right-hander in the class of 2020, began his 2019 season when he boarded a plane in March with the Canadian Junior National Team en route to St. Petersburg after being named to the squad for the first time in late 2018. His season concluded with a fall trip through the States with the Great Lakes Canadians which saw him touch 95 mph for the first time.

Sounds like a typical year from a top high school prospect as he begins to look ahead to his senior year but it was far from it for the University of Connecticut commit. Ziegler sprained his UCL early on in that first spring training trip and knew he had a tough road ahead going nearly the entire summer without pitching, trading in baseball’s for rehab and strength work. But somewhere in those 4-5 months away from the sport he loved, he was reminded why he fell in love with it in the first place.

I had the chance to talk one-one-one with Ziegler as he opened up about the mental struggles being away from baseball, how he was able to return and add velocity, and why the Canada Cup served as the perfect way to return to competitive action.

Below we have a Q&A with the UConn commit:

PBR: You were first named to the Junior National Team for the Fall Instructional League in late 2018. As a baseball player trying to compete at the highest level, what was going through your mind as you found out you’ll be playing for Canada?
Calvin Ziegler (CZ): At first, it was kind of just an honour to wear Canada across the chest. It was a really cool experience. Greg Hamilton is doing a good thing with the program, letting us play the professional guys from a young age and seeing where we need to be, whether we want to be there or go the college route. It’s a really good experience but when you go down there you’re not really expecting to win, you still have to compete as much as you can but there’s a certain level where they’re just obviously that much more trained, older and physical. Between all the other players, we’re just trying to compete and get better and making sure the scouts like what they see and you just kind of go from there.

PBR: That first trip for you, what was it like as you tried to get settled in an unfamiliar situation? Was it a little overwhelming at first or you were just surrounded by so many friends that it was a smooth and seamless transition?
CZ: It wasn’t too bad for me. You go on a trip for two weeks and all you do is play baseball so there’s nothing really to complain about there. It wasn’t hard but obviously going away for two weeks and not seeing anybody from back home is different. These were all really new guys that I hadn’t really met before so it was a little stressful at first but everybody was really nice and once you’ve met everyone you kind of become your own little family down there.

PBR: So then you return to spring training with Canada several months later. You went through some injury troubles there and it was somewhat of a difficult trip for you. Can you talk about that injury and how you were feeling as you departed Florida that spring?
CZ: I sprained my UCL. I think it was in my third inning and I was only supposed to go three innings that day and I think I had two outs. I didn’t really have a feel for my curveball that game and I was trying to get it back so I tried to flip one in there and kind of just threw it and it didn’t feel comfortable. It was a passed ball because I had no clue where it went and then I just held my elbow and walked to the dugout. The coaches were wondering what happened and obviously it just wasn’t a good day for me. It was towards the beginning of the trip which was the part that sucked and obviously getting injured isn’t fun but the mental part definitely hit. Not being able to do anything for two weeks sucked and then coming back home I got it confirmed by two different people with two MRIs and everything was headed towards that… it was sprained. I got shut down for 2-3 months and then I was training, rehabbing, recovering and all that. Definitely wasn’t a fun time for me but once I got back and throwing again, everything started to brighten up.

PBR: Rehabbing and your recovery didn’t allow you to really pitch all summer. Can you talk about what your summer consisted of, physically with workouts, keeping fresh and also how you were progressing with your throwing program?
CZ: I was doing a throwing program, building everything back up and it was probably the slowest throwing program I ever went through. For the first month I think the max I went up to was like 90 feet for 15 throws and it was really just to see how the elbow felt, it was nothing to actually help build arm strength back up. After everything got cleared by Jason Smith, I was cleared to start throwing again so I started ramping it up slowly and then built it back up but I never really got to throw a curveball yet because I wasn’t cleared for that until like the week before the Canada Cup. It was kind of hard to spin a curveball when you haven’t thrown it in months so I definitely struggled there with the curveball. It was like a 10-1 ratio with the fastball to curveball so hitters definitely knew what was coming.  

PBR: Mentally, what was it like for you to have baseball taken from you for a summer at such an important time in your career as you continued to inch towards draft year and who or what helped you through the tough times while coming back?
CZ: So getting injured, I obviously would have had two or three more trips that I would have done with Team Canada so that would mean missing 30 or more extra days of school. On that part, as soon as I got injured I was like ‘you know what… school isn’t going the greatest right now so I’m going to get a tutor.’ I got a tutor and I bumped my marks up drastically. Getting injured, it’s like it was almost meant to be. My school and my grades just began to skyrocket because I could focus most of my attention on it. My family really helped, my one local therapist I go to, he does a lot of training with me and a lot of rehab. Doctor Andrew Robb, he’s local for me and he definitely helped a lot and helped me build everything back up starting with all the strength and conditioning I needed and making sure that everything was working the way it should be.

PBR: You’re committed to Connecticut, how much did that help you through this process knowing you already had that out of the way and didn’t have to worry about finding a school once coming back and pitching? Did UConn or anyone there help you through the process?
CZ: Yeah, so I knew I had my spot where I was going to school so I wasn’t stressing about that too much. The coaches at UConn were very supportive about it because they’ve actually had this happen to a couple of their players and a couple of their players actually had surgery before they started so they were familiar with the situation which definitely helped me out a bit and they just told me to keep calm, it’s not a big deal and it happens. I forget what the stat was but it was something like one in three players in the majors goes through something like this at some point so seeing something like that makes you feel a little better too.

PBR: You returned in August for the Canada Cup. What was the feeling like for you to finally get back on the mound and just be around a bunch of your friends and doing what you love again?
CZ: Canada Cup was a really good experience for me. I met a lot of friends that I’m friends with now. The group chat we made, we still talk on that almost daily so just the relationships alone helped a lot. But definitely getting back on the hill. I don’t really care about my outings there anymore, it’s in the past but I remember getting back out there and it was definitely a little stressful. It’s not your CPBL regular season game that doesn’t mean a ton in the long run, it’s a national tournament so you need to perform. It was a little stressful but everybody was helpful and encouraging so I didn’t really have to worry about anything like that.

2020 @UConnBSB commit Calvin Ziegler sitting 90-92 in his one inning of work. #T12 ?? pic.twitter.com/2BUde8F0Lw

— PBR Ontario (@PBR_Ontario) September 21, 2019

PBR: Your stuff looked sharp at T12 and the arm was really looking loose again. Is that kind of how you’re feeling with it at this point too?
CZ: I started my throwing program again, just lightly, so the things I’m really working on right now are my changeup and my command. Being at T12 you obviously saw I didn’t really have my command there which was a little disappointing but one of the reasons for that I believe and a couple of my trainers have said, it might be because my uptick in velocity so my body isn’t prepared to actually throw this hard yet so I can’t really hit the zone sometimes. I mean this time last year I think I topped out at 87 or 88, something like that, and on my last fall trip with GLC I was up to 95. It was just for one pitch but the jump in velocity was just kind of crazy.

PBR: This fall here, you’ve moved to the Great Lakes Canadians. What’s your offseason looking like and what are you currently doing to help prepare for June’s draft?
CZ: Right now I’m working with the pitching coach at Great Lakes, his name is Jon Fitzsimmons and he was with two pro organizations I believe, so he’s been through it a bit and so I kind of talk to him and rely on him for the pitching stuff. He’s the guy I’m running my program with and right now I’m throwing three times a week, 120 feet nothing too crazy and I’m lifting three to four times a week just building up some strength and conditioning and I’ve already seen some improvement with my strength and my size this fall and winter.

PBR: You’ve been working really hard towards moving on and pitching at the next level, whether it’s attending UConn or playing pro ball, after all this hard work and what you’ve been through, what would it mean to you to hear your name called at the draft in June?
CZ: It’s kind of something that’s crazy to even be talking about right now. At school I don’t really talk about it, just in my little friend group sometimes. Obviously it’s going to be an exciting day and I’m probably going to have to take a day or two off school depending on how things play out. It will be an exciting day and my friends are saying they’re excited for that day and I’m obviously excited along with my family and if my name gets called that would be awesome but if it doesn’t, it’s no big deal because I get to go to UConn which is somewhere I’ve been and visited and it just looks awesome.

PBR: What is most important to you going forward with baseball? When you’re going to workouts, putting in the work, working on the arm strength… what are you doing it for?
CZ: I just love the sport. I’ve been playing it for a decade now which is kind of crazy to say. It’s just kind of a part of me, I’ve done it my whole life. I’m in my room right now and just looking around, my whole room is just baseball. There’s a shelf where there’s almost 40 baseballs up there. It’s just a part of my life and obviously you want to go as far as you can and no matter where that is I’ll be happy with it, I have some cool stories to tell. In the end, if things don’t work out or I don’t end up going where I want to go, I’m still going to become a coach or just help out an organization any way I can.