PEORIA, Ariz. — Evan White had everything going for him.
He was the Mariners' first-round pick in 2017. He signed a six-year contract extension in 2019. He was the Opening Day starter at first base in 2020 and a Gold Glove winner by the end of the year.
Yet since that moment, White's played in just 30 Big League games.
A hip injury sidetracked a career that seemed destined for stardom.
“The injury was many years in the making I feel like,” he said at Seattle's Spring Training camp.
He said his discouragement came to a boiling point last year.
“I started three or four – I think four or five rehab assignments," he said. "By the third one, it’s very frustrating because you’re doing everything you can and it’s, ‘Okay what’s wrong with me? What’s the deal? Why can’t I get back to just being able to stay healthy, just being on the field?'”
In November, White finally found the answer to that question.
"When I hear pelvic floor specialist that’s not ever what I would’ve predicted that I would’ve had to work with,” he said.
Forty miles from the Mariners Spring Training home, Dr. Tonya Bunner went to work at Athlete Chiropractic.
“One of the things he just kept saying to me is, ‘I just want to get back and play baseball,” said Bunner, who's a board-certified orthopedic physical therapist.
But first, White would need to tackle even the most basic movements.
“He had very sharp pain in his groin, difficulty lifting his leg up, difficulty turning his leg in and out,” Bunner said.
“There’s a muscle in there called the obturator that was my big issue. It created a lot of weaknesses and deficiencies and compensation patterns for many years so kind of being able to untangle that and dive into that,” White said.
“From my perspective, it was a matter of addressing the scar tissue that was in that area,” Bunner added.
White is now five months into his visits with Bunner, and the results have been promising.
“I was pleasantly surprised with how I felt after games and stuff like that because you never truly know until you actually get on the field,” White said.
“He’s got great hip mobility and once the hip mobility is back to where it needs to be, then the whole system functions as a well-conditioned unit,” Bunner said.
Mariners Manager Scott Servais said he wants him to feel what it's like to compete without pain.
White will start the 2023 season in Triple-A Tacoma, hopeful he can rediscover the promise he once showed.
“I feel like I’m in a position now where everything’s been corrected and I’m in a good spot to be the best version of myself,” he said.