Andrew Pintar has been playing baseball for as long as he can remember. From the very beginning, his goal was to play professionally. “Some may laugh at it, but it was always my dream to play professional baseball,” he said. “Once you get to college it can get serious, and it can happen.”
For Pintar, it happened in 2022 when the Arizona Diamondbacks drafted him. At the time of the draft, he was recovering from his second shoulder surgery. “I had shoulder surgery in April 2022 and then got drafted later that year,” he said.
Pintar believes that part of the reason he was drafted while recovering from his injury was because of the success of his second surgery. He played college baseball at Brigham Young University (BYU). After a successful freshman season, he started having pain in his right shoulder.
“I decided to play through the discomfort,” Pintar said. “I ended up having a really good sophomore year, even though I was in a lot of pain.”
At the end of the season, an MRI showed Pintar had a torn shoulder labrum, which is cartilage that helps stabilize the shoulder joint. The labrum is also an attachment point for several tendons in the shoulder, as well as the bicep muscle.
“A local surgeon that BYU works with performed surgery to repair my labrum,” Pintar said. “I focused on rehabbing my shoulder that entire summer and into the fall semester of my junior year.”
However, when Pintar started throwing again, his shoulder didn’t feel normal. “It just didn’t feel right,” he said. He had already missed a summer of baseball and was anxious to get back on the field for his junior year, when he would be draft eligible.
“A bunch of professional teams were talking to me, and I didn’t want to miss my opportunity to get drafted,” he said. “I started the season and continued playing, and it wasn’t going well.”
Pintar knew it was time to address his shoulder injury again. “I picked up a sports agent, and we were sending MRIs of my shoulder to different doctors across the country,” he said.
After talking to several surgeons, Pintar traveled to Arizona to meet with the Arizona Diamondbacks team doctor. After reviewing Pintar’s MRI images and assessing the injury, he gave his recommendation.
“The doctor in Arizona recommended that I come back to Utah to see Dr. Chalmers,” said Pintar.
Peter Chalmers, MD, a University of Utah orthopedic surgeon and faculty member in the Department of Orthopaedics, treats shoulder and elbow issues. He serves as a team physician for the Salt Lake Bees AAA baseball team and the Utah Jazz NBA basketball team. Pintar met with Chalmers to discuss his injury. “Andrew had an unusual injury,” Chalmers said. “He had torn his rotator cuff and some of the ligaments and tendons and you could see the injury develop over time with the MRI images.” A second surgery would be more challenging, and at first Chalmers wasn’t entirely sure if it would be successful.
“Dr. Chalmers shot me straight and didn’t just tell me that everything was going to be fine,” Pintar said. “He told me he could put everything where it needs to be, but he couldn’t promise that it would be OK.”
Pintar appreciated Chalmers’ direct approach. Although he was still nervous about the surgery, he knew that Chalmers was the right surgeon to fix his shoulder.
“This was kind of my only chance to get this fixed, since I had already had one unsuccessful surgery,” Pintar said. “I trusted Dr. Chalmers and it ended up working out really well.”
Things went so well that despite Pintar’s injury and surgery, the Arizona Diamondbacks drafted him just three months after his shoulder surgery.
Pintar spent his first full year with the Diamondbacks rehabilitating his shoulder. “The team took a chance on him, and he was drafted before he was fully recovered,” Chalmers said.
After an open shoulder surgery, patients aren’t usually back to full activity for at least 18 months. After nearly a year of daily rehab sessions with the Diamondbacks’ rehab and training staff, Pintar was throwing again and his shoulder felt normal.
“He’s done very well,” Chalmers said. “It’s not a quick road, but he’s a really determined athlete and has made great progress.”
After two years with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Pintar was traded to the Miami Marlins. During the off-season, Pintar and his wife live in Utah. Although there have been a lot of bumps along the way, Pintar is happy.
“It’s definitely a grind, and it’s a lot of work,” he said. “But playing professional baseball is more than I had ever hoped for.”
Now, it’s been nearly two and a half years since surgery and Pintar says he hasn’t had an ounce of pain. Pintar has nothing but good things to say about Dr. Chalmers and his team.
“I’ve recommended a lot of people to Dr. Chalmers,” Pintar said. “Ever since I had my successful surgery and outcome, BYU’s baseball team now sends their injured players to see him."
