Angels News: Injured Taylor Ward Breaks Silence After Facial Reconstructive Surgery
Ruled out for the season after taking a pitch to the face earlier in the year, Angels outfielder Taylor Ward spoke about both his recovery and the future of his career.
Talking about the incident that cut his 2023 campaign short, Ward hopes to return strong in 2024 with a new mentality and equipment to prevent such a thing from happening again.
“Everyone’s story is different,” Ward told The Athletic by phone this week, his first public comments since undergoing facial reconstruction surgery that ended his season. “I feel like I’ve come to a reason why this happened. And I’m able to, at least standing right here — I hope when I step in the box as things move forward, (I’m able to) move past this. (I’ll) try to basically get as comfortable as I can and forget what happened,” said Ward, who hopes that adding a new C-flap to his batting helmet will help allay any lingering fears. “Put that in the back of your mind and let other thoughts take control.”
Taking a fastball to the cheek against the Blue Jays, Toronto's crowd fell deathly quiet as Ward crumpled to the ground after Alek Manoah invertedly struck him in the face with his pitch.
Carted off and immediately ruled out for the rest of the season following his procedure, Ward is trying to pick up the pieces after a situation that many of us can't even fathom happening.
Ward certainly won't be the last to suffer the unfortunate fate and we can look elsewhere in the AL for a similar story.
While still with the Marlins, Giancarlo Stanton suffered the same injury and subsequently used the C-Flap after such a scary sight.
If Stanton could return and reach the personal milestone of 400 home runs, Ward should have faith that he too could return to a similar production.
