Bednar, Fellows are teammates for one game at PNG Field
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By Jarrod Prugar
For the Mirror
One of the beautiful parts of minor league baseball is that each player has a vastly different journey that they have gone on to get to where they are currently at.
For Altoona pitcher Drake Fellows, that journey came full circle as he and Pittsburgh Pirates closer David Bednar suited up for the Curve this past Tuesday night.
Fellows and Bednar, who was in town as part of his rehab assignment, were a part of a three-team trade with the San Diego Padres, New York Mets and the Pirates, who sent Joe Musgrove to San Diego and got Bednar and Fellows as part of the return.
"Coming over here I didn't play with him at all," Bednar recalled. "Getting to talk to him a little bit in spring training and now playing with him today, it's cool to watch him kind of develop into the player and it's really cool to see."
The moment wasn't lost on Fellows.
"It was definitely a cool moment," Fellows said. "Coming over to the Pirates and just kind of stuff I've been dealing with, staying at the facility for two to three years. I got to talk to Bednar a little bit and he's a really good guy."
While Bednar and Fellows will forever be linked for their inclusion in the trade, their journeys could not be more different.
Fellows was a member of the 2019 College World Series champion Vanderbilt team before being drafted in the sixth round of the 2019 MLB Draft by San Diego.
He didn't get to pitch for the Padres after being diagnosed with non-hodgkins lymphoma just after signing with the team. COVID struck in 2020 and then he was traded to the Pirates ahead of the 2021 season.
"Baseball's short. When you're a kid you never want to stop playing and then when it gets taken away from here, you just realize how much fun it is to be out there with your teammates and just going out and playing a kid's game," Fellows said. "It's just fun, puts everything in perspective. Life is short and you just got to come out here and make memories with your teammates and just try to enjoy it and have as much fun as possible."
Fun is a word that just a few short years ago wouldn't have been used to describe what Fellows was going through. Shortly after hitting the field following his recovery and being declared cancer free, Fellows found himself back on the injured list after needing Tommy John surgery.
"It was just a mental grind more than anything," Fellows said. "I knew I had the ability to get back out on the field, it was just a matter of when and then it felt like the dominoes kept falling when I was diagnosed with cancer and then COVID and then the trade and then and then I finally get back out there and then blow my elbow out the first time around with the Pirates."
His path to get back to full health and back on the field has been far from easy, but he credits those in his life for their help in getting him through the darker parts of his journey.
"It's been a tough one for sure, but I definitely got to give credit to all the people in my life, my family, all the coaches that have helped me along the way," Fellows said. "Sometimes it just feels like you're never going to get back out there, then you finally do and it's just becoming a kid again. It just feels really good to get back out there and compete and be with a team who wants to win."
This year, Fellows has seen time at three different levels within the organization after starting the season in High A Greensboro. It has also marked his first full season in the minor leagues.
"It's been crazy. I've been on three different teams starting in Greensboro and got all the way to Triple A Indianapoli in two months," Fellows said. "The Pirates believe in me. I like to see that they trust in me and have faith to go out and compete and put me in that environment."
Fellows is 3-3 this season with a 4.42 ERA across the three levels. The results have steadily improved for Fellows in Altoona this season and what's next remains to be seen, but for him, he's going to savor every moment he's able to step on the field with his teammates for he knows nothing in life is a guarantee.