Ryan Craigie: A Conversation by the Pool

[RonCo]

May 31, 2027 -- “To be honest with you, there was a time I thought my career might be over. And it was totally devastating.”

That was 34-year-old right handed reliever Ryan Craigie, currently of the Yellow Springs Nine. I caught up with him at the team’s hotel in Calgary, where the Nine are in the middle of a three-game stint with the Pioneers. We’re sitting at the hotel pool after a game-1 loss, sipping Sam Adams beers, which Craigie accepts, but says isn’t quite a real beer. Good enough, he said earlier, but not really pub quality. The smell of chlorine is heavy, but it’s late and there’s no one else down here now.

The “time” he was worried about, though, was three seasons ago, in August of 2024. He had been traded from the Huntsville Phantoms (where he was part of a Landis winning ball club) earlier in the year, and was pitching for the Indy Grasshoppers, who were contending for another Landis trophy. He threw a pitch, and suddenly felt pain in his elbow. It was bad. The diagnosis: Tommy John Surgery. Months of rehab. Sure, there are guys who come back from this surgery bigger and better, but there are guys who don’t—and Ryan Craigie was both in the last year of his contract, and on the wrong side of thirty.

“Seriously, I looked at Chrissie (his wife) and said ‘this might be it.’ I thought it was over.”

Enter Yellow Springs and then-new GM Ron Collins. Though he was still convalescing, the club signed Craigie to a 1-season deal and waited patiently while the Englishman went back to his hometown of Warrington, England, to recover. It’s a quaint town just east of Liverpool, which you might have heard about as the home to a couple guys who once played a little music. It’s also the hometown of Tim Curry, of Dr. Frankenfurter fame, for all it matters. “It was great to get home and hang with the mates,” Craigie said. “It’s a fun town, and it was great to get back and spend so real time there with my parents and sister. Mostly rugby and rowing as our sport there. And, of course pub darts. There’s always a game going on down at the Pig and Quill. But mostly it was great to spend some time away from the hustle, and just kind of remember who I was.” He looks out to the city profile. “The baseball world moves pretty fast, you know? You’re always on the road, like we are now—which is hard, really. It’s hard on you and it’s hard on your family. It’s easy to forget what a great thing a black and tan is when the sun’s just goin down.

Help from the homeland or not, Craigie recovered quickly and even managed to pitch a bit in 2024, throwing a solid 3.60 ERA in 24 innings—which was strong enough that the team signed him for two more seasons. His 4.19 ERA showed a bit of inconsistency, but he registered 17 saves in the process, combining with fellow Englishman Colin Julyan to hold down the bulk of the club’s closer duties. This year he’s been mostly a mainline reliever, and his 3.14 ERA is among his career best, and his walk rate is his best ever. “I feel great,” Craigie said. “Better than ever. I’m thinking I’m one of those Tommy John guys, now, it seems. Bionic arm and all that.”

With all that’s happened in the past, though, Craigie seems to have found a home in Yellow Springs. Though he’s entering the last guaranteed year of his contract, he has a vesting season left, and he’s told the team he’s open to negotiating a new multi-season deal—though he figures he took a discount rate while he was hurt, so he would like a bit of a raise. “Chrissie and I like Yellow Springs,” he said. “It’s a working town, you know? A lot like Warrington, really. The people are open and easy to get along with, although they do have this thing for something called buckeyes, which doesn’t make any sense.”

Regardless, as much as the Cragies like Yellow Springs, Yellow Springs seems to like them back.

The team is apparently discussing said extension internally now, and in fact Craigie expects to set down and talk about it in detail with both GM Ron Collins and his agent when they return from this road trip. The club has expressed interest, but with the option in hand, they clearly don't feel great schedule pressure to get something done. And Craigie’s been around a bit. After playing seven seasons in Halifax, he’s been though Vancouver, as well as Huntsville, Indy, and now Yellow Springs.

“I hope it works out here,” he said. “But if it doesn’t, well, as my wife said, I’ve only got a few years of this left, and we’ve moved house before.”

We talked for longer, mostly about philosophy of pitching. He’s got a baseball in his jacket pocket, and he pulls it out to show me grips. The lad from Warrington has a fastball, cutter, forkball repertoire, and is known to toss out a bit of a change at times. He shows me the grips, and sips a bit more of his beer. He’ll leave half of it behind by the end of the discussion. He may be a rugby fan, and a dart thrower, but he’s a baseball aficionado. The guy knows his stuff.

If fans in Yellow Springs are lucky, he’ll spend a few more years showing them just how much he knows.

[trmmilwwi]

Awesome read... anything that includes Dr Frankenfurter and a baseball in your pocket is fine by me. Good stuff. I think Craigie wears the Halifax Cap on his bust in the hall, dontcha think.

[indiansfan]

One of the guys I always regretted trading and when he was a FA I didn't have a spot for him.