{"id":358059,"date":"2025-12-19T10:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/358059\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T10:00:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:00:12","slug":"john-means-tears-his-achilles-the-same-day-he-was-set-to-sign-with-a-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/358059\/","title":{"rendered":"John Means tears his Achilles the same day he was set to sign with a team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"John Means delivers a pitch while with the Baltimore Orioles.\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2153459429-1024x683.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"responsive\" class=\"image-next-root\" style=\"border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;bottom:0;right:0;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0;border:none;margin:auto;display:block;width:0;height:0;min-width:100%;max-width:100%;min-height:100%;max-height:100%;object-fit:cover\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Article_ImageCaptionCredit__mkXi_ article-image-caption-credit Typography_body1__xfKuc inherit Typography_base__jzSqr\">John Means finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2019 but has had poor luck with injuries since 2022. Mitchell Layton \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>John Means can\u2019t seem to catch a break. The lefty starter who underwent Tommy John surgery in 2022 and 2024 after a strong start to his career with the Baltimore Orioles, announced Thursday that he tore his Achilles on Tuesday. As if that weren\u2019t painful enough, he said he was on the verge of signing with a new team the day he suffered the injury.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is hard to put into words, but I\u2019ll try,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DSbLZBOj2b3\/?img_index=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Means posted<\/a> on Instagram. \u201cOn Tuesday, while training, I ruptured my Achilles. It happened the same day I was supposed to sign with a team and be available on Opening Day for the first time in a long time. \u2026 I was finally enjoying my first healthy offseason in four years and felt better than ever. I don\u2019t know why this happened or how this chapter will ultimately be used, but I know it\u2019s now part of my story and God has a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After spending his first seven seasons with the Orioles, the 32-year-old signed a $1 million deal for 2025 with the Cleveland Guardians, who declined his $6 million club option for 2026 after he didn\u2019t pitch for the club. Means made seven minor-league starts in 2025 with a 6.08 ERA over 26 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n<p>Over a year removed from his second major elbow procedure, Means was an intriguing name on the free-agent market despite pitching only 52 1\/3 big-league innings since 2022. He showed massive promise early on in Baltimore, where he made the All-Star team and finished second in the American League Rookie of the Year voting in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Means went 6-9 with a 3.62 ERA in 2021 and pitched a no-hitter that season against the Seattle Mariners that was about as close as a pitcher can come to tossing a perfect game. Sam Haggerty was the only Mariners batter to reach base against Means, and he did so on a dropped third strike. Haggerty was thrown out attempting to steal second base, so Means ended up facing the minimum 27 batters while striking out 12.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Means finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2019 but has had poor&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,1186,5258,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-358059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles","11":"tag-cleveland-guardians","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}