Justin Duchscherer battles depression to return to A’s

Posted on December 24, 2009

Justin Duchscherer of the Oakland Athletics pitches during the game against the San Francisco Giants at the McAfee Coliseum in Oakland, California on June 28, 2008. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane has decided that one of his former ballplayers is worth keeping after suffering through physical injuries and mental illness. Justin Duchscherer has agreed to a one-year contract to return to the A’s for the 2010 season in a deal that could be worth up to $5.5MM if he reaches his incentives. Nice move Billy!

I think this is a great move for the A’s as Duchscherer will help to anchor a terrific young pitching staff (Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Vin Mazzaro and Gio Gonzalez) that could use his veteran leadership to reach new heights in 2010. The 32-year-old Duchscherer will start the 2010 season with a 31-24 career record after missing the entire 2009 season to injuries. He pitched beautifully during the 2008 season in Oakland and finished the season with a 10-8 record and a nifty 2.54 ERA before his season was cut short in mid-August due to injury.

Duchscherer missed the entire 2009 season due to shoulder and back injuries and a bout with clinical depression. The A’s and their fans will be hoping that Duchscherer can return to his All-Star form in 2010. Duchscherer is an inspirational story as he worked his way up from being a middle reliever with the A’s before he turned into a dominant starter. He put his career on hold last season to focus 100 percent of his efforts on his recovery from clinical depression.

I have always enjoyed watching Duchscherer pitch and he has been fun to photograph, except for the many games in 2008 when he chose to wear the AWFUL black jerseys (see above) for games he pitched at home. It is a tradition in baseball that the days starting pitcher gets to choose which uniform jersey his team will wear that day (if they have more than one jersey to choose from). For some reason Duchscherer had a thing for the black jersey and must have had good luck while pitching in it because he always seemed to choose it when I was at the park.

Good luck to Duke in 2010. I will be rooting for him.