David Pierce says Tanner Witt is 'on schedule to pitch' for Texas in 2023
The 2022 Texas Longhorns baseball season changed dramatically in its early stages when right-handed pitcher Tanner Witt was lost for the year due to Tommy John surgery. The loss of the 6-foot-6, 225-pounder after a strong debut season in 2021 changed the complexion of the entire pitching staff on a team with national championship aspirations.
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The Longhorns made it to Omaha even without Witt, but his absence was felt. The injury absence had an effect on the 2023 campaign, as Tommy John rehabilitation can sometimes be a year or more in length.
A year has past since Witt went under the knife. On Texas head coach David Pierce’s regular appearance with 104.9 The Horn’s Bucky and Erin, the UT skipper said Witt has made progress to where he’ll eventually be an option for the current squad.
“Faced three live hitters yesterday for the first time, and it was really exciting for him, his teammates,” Pierce said Thursday.
Pierce outlined the type of work Witt was tasked with on Wednesday.
“During the week, once we start playing 4-5 games a week, guys that do not pitch as much as needed or get as many at bats — we call it our extra period — we’ll have those pitchers face hitters,” Pierce said. “Tanner was a part of that yesterday. He looked great.”
As a result of that positive step, what’s the timeframe for the 2023 preseason All-Big 12 selection?
“It’s all about how his body and arm recovers,” Pierce said. “He’ll do it again next week and we’ll just continue to see how he’s recovering, see how he feels. Hopefully that plan continues and we can get him out there in about three weeks.”
There’s a recent example of a pitcher recovering from Tommy John and returning mid-year for the Longhorns to follow, and it comes from their rival north of the Red River.
Former Oklahoma Sooner standout Cade Horton underwent Tommy John in 2021, missing the rest of that season. He returned in time for late-season action for the 2022 Oklahoma team. Horton was a key part of Skip Johnson’s squad that won the Big 12 Tournament and advanced to the championship series in Omaha.
Horton worked himself into shape. He debuted on March 29, 2022 and threw 19 pitches. With extended rest in between outings, he had back-to-back 25 pitch appearances before he saw his workload increase.
By the end of the regular season, Horton was starting games. He earned the win over Texas in the Big 12 Tournament championship after a 5.1-inning outing where he allowed one earned run and two hits, walking two and striking out nine. He then started games in the Gainesville regional and Blacksburg super regional, the latter being the contest that sent OU to Omaha.
Pierce believes something similar could happen in Austin.
“It’s a good model for what Tanner is going to do,” Pierce said. “We’ve kind of looked at that already.”
No matter what it looks like, Pierce made the most important aspect clear at the end of his chat on B&E: “I do feel like Tanner is on schedule to pitch for this team this year.”
Witt has a career 7-0 record in 30 appearances, two of those appearances being starts. He has a 2.91 ERA and a career opponent’s batting average of .198.
Texas is 21-9 and 4-2 in the Big 12. The Longhorns are set to host Kansas State this weekend. Due to inclement weather, the schedule was adjusted on Thursday to accommodate the series with the Wildcats.
Game one is Friday at 6:30 p.m., game two is Saturday at 2:30 p.m., and game three is Sunday at 1 p.m. All games will be aired on Longhorn Network.
