Mulder ruptures Achilles during workout, needs surgery
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Mark Mulder's return from a six-year layoff may have ended before even beginning -- despite a completely healthy arm.
The 36-year-old left-hander injured his left ankle doing side-to-side warm-up drills Saturday morning, just before he was set to throw his first bullpen session for the Angels, and an MRI later revealed a ruptured Achilles tendon that will require surgery.
The news is tragic for Mulder, who impressed evaluators with his bullpen sessions over the winter and signed a Minor League contract in hopes of cracking the Angels' rotation out of Spring Training.
Mulder, a two-time All-Star who finished second in American League Cy Young Award voting while with the A's in 2001, hadn't pitched since he was with the Cardinals in '08, hadn't won a game since '06 and was forced to retire at age 31 because his shoulder couldn't recover from two surgeries.
This fall, though, Mulder found a delivery that worked for him, dazzled in a November throwing session in front of five teams and continued to push his arm to new limits over the New Year, throwing a couple of 100-plus-pitch simulated games, then 40-pitch bullpen sessions twice a week leading up to Spring Training.
Along the way, he got only better. And eight days ago, everything clicked.
'That was the first day I really thought to myself, 'OK, I'm ready to start this,' Mulder said Friday.
But now, given the nature of the ankle injury and Mulder's situation, chances are he'll go back into retirement.
'I can handle this,' Mulder wrote on his Twitter account shortly after news broke. 'But seeing my son in tears when he saw me in a boot and crutches and I told him I wasn't going to pitch - that was tough.'
Alden Gonzalez is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Gonzo and 'The Show', and follow him on Twitter @Alden_Gonzalez. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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