Justin Campbell came to OSU as a 2-way player, with a very good left-handed hit tool, and left OSU one of the best pitchers to walk the campus.
In some of his early scrimmages, he was the best hitter on the team, but Coach Walton and staff recognized how valuable he was on the mound and made the transition to pitcher only.
Campbell got his feet wet in 2020, throwing 20.1 Innings, then really took off the next year in 2021, posting a 2.57 ERA in 84 innings. He had 102 Ks in 84 innings and a batting average against of just .214. He backed in 2022, his last year on campus with a 9-2 record to cement his legacy as a certified “DUDE” for OSU.
He got drafted as the 37th pick overall in the 2022 draft and had the Major Leagues in his sites.
But, that’s when things slowed down, then stopped, which is the stage he’s been in for the past couple of years.
Campbell has been dealing with injuries, so he hasn’t gotten things rolling yet, and is going to miss this year as well. But is super excited that things are getting closer to getting him back where he feels the most at home, and that’s on the mound.
Here’s the update on the exact situation, and this is per Campbell himself.
So since I got drafted, I was held back in Goodyear (main facility in the states to train and for Spring Training) bc of the amount of innings I threw in college that year. That season finishes up, spring comes around and my nerve starts to bug me and got that fixed with surgery which was about a 6 month full recovery process.
So I recovered great from that, then the spring ‘24 comes and right before we all were going to be shipped out to our affiliates I get knocked down with my elbow. It sucked because everything was feeling good and just one day during live at bats my elbow felt like there was a sharp pebble right in my elbow at release. So, I had to have full reconstructive surgery, and I’m recovering and healing well.
I started my throwing program maybe 2-3 days into throwing my throwing wrist started to bother me really bad, couldn’t put any pressure on it what so ever nor could I even bend It back or touch my thumb to my pinkie.. I told medical staff about it, we got it straightened out, surgery was needed, I was wanting surgery the whole way through because I believed that was the only way it would’ve worked for me, that was only about a 5 week set back at most. Now we are on regular TJ progression and will be throwing off the mound this Saturday for my first touch feel pen w 15 pitches.
All 3 surgeries were within a year and a half, and I should be good to go after this season for the AZ Fall League.
Holy wow, what a bunch of setbacks, but if you know JC, that’s all they’ll be, and they’ll be temporary. Super excited that he’s throwing a ball off the mound again. Thanks for all you did for OSU JC. greatly appreciated, and we wish you the best of luck. You won’t need it, though! Just keep going; the ones that do are the ones that make it!
