Playing through pain is part of the game, but not this illness

Austin Hays with the Philadelphia Phillies this past season. After recovering from a kidney infection, Hays is now a free agent, eager to prove he again can be the player who started in center field for the American League in the 2023 All-Star Game. (Instagram via @austinhays22)

By Ken Rosenthal / The Athletic

Left fielder Austin Hays played all 11 innings for the Philadelphia Phillies in a 3-2 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Sept. 1, going 0 for 4. After the game, during a flight to Toronto, he started feeling nauseated and lightheaded. When he got to his hotel room, he fell asleep in his clothes. He didn’t wake up until 2:30 the next afternoon. And when he went to the bathroom, he was shocked to see blood in his urine.

Hays rushed to a Toronto hospital, accompanied by Phillies athletic trainer Paul Buchheit. Doctors ran blood tests, then delivered the diagnosis that explained everything: the heaviness in his legs, the pain in his lower back, the floaters in his eyes, the brain fog that enveloped his conversations with his wife and teammates.

Hays, 29, had a kidney infection, a freak occurrence probably originating from something he ate. His test results indicated he had been ill for an extended period, perhaps the majority of the time he spent with the Phillies after they acquired him July 26 from the Baltimore Orioles for reliever Seranthony Domínguez and outfielder Cristian Pache.

The trade proved a disappointment for Philadelphia, and ultimately prompted the team to recently part with Hays rather than pay him a projected $6.4 million in arbitration.

Yet, as Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said, “I don’t think we saw the true guy.”

Hays is now a free agent, eager to prove he again can be the player who started in center field for the American League in the 2023 All-Star Game. He described his infection as “the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through.” He would sleep for eight hours and feel like he was hung over, like he hadn’t slept at all.

“I’ve played with broken bones. I’ve played with all kinds of different stuff. You get banged up,” Hays said. “But this was something that attacks everything. It messes with your brain. It messes with your personality. When your kidneys aren’t functioning right, it changes everything.

“It had me down and out. My body was just so empty.”

In his first seven games with the Phillies, Hays was fine. But on Aug. 5, with the Phillies set to open a series at Dodger Stadium, he woke up more stiff and sore in his legs than usual.

Initially, Hays attributed his sudden aches to more consistent playing time. For the first time in his career, he had been in something of a platoon with the Orioles, alternating with Colton Cowser, the eventual runner-up for AL rookie of the year. The Phillies saw him as more of a regular. And then he got hurt.

In the series finale in Los Angeles, Hays experienced tightness in his hamstring running to first base. The strain, he said, felt different from anything he experienced before.

“To a certain degree, I kick myself,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said recently. “Maybe I played him too many days in a row early.”

Thomson, though, had no idea Hays was dealing with a potentially more serious condition. Hays, based on what he learned from his doctors, believes his kidney infection might have surfaced around the time he strained his hamstring.

After two weeks on the injured list, Hays still didn’t feel right. Both his hamstrings were tight. He would perform exercises to make his legs stronger. His legs would end up feeling weaker. No matter how much he stretched, the stiffness persisted. Stretching, he said, made him feel almost worse.

It had to be lingering fatigue, Hays and the Phillies concluded, from playing regularly again. Hays went on a two-game rehabilitation assignment, then rejoined the major league club. But his discomfort persisted, each day getting worse.

He underwent MRIs and other tests on his legs. Thomson, hearing Hays describe his lack of energy, called the situation “scary.” Dombrowski said the Phillies found it confusing. Hays, from almost the moment he arrived, simply did not move the way he had during his time with the Orioles.

“We liked him a lot when we got him, and we’d liked him in the past,” Dombrowski said. “There were other right-handed hitters available at the trade deadline who were really good players that we compared him equally to. And I know other people did, too.”

Hays did not return to the injured list immediately after receiving the diagnosis in Toronto. The initial plan was for him to go on antibiotics, take three days off and resume playing. He continued suiting up for games. He would try to warm up, prepare for action.

It was futile.

In 22 regular-season games with the Phillies, Hays batted .256 with two homers and a .672 OPS. The team included him on its Division Series roster, used him as a late-inning substitute in Game 2 against the New York Mets, then started him in Game 3. Hays went a combined 0 for 4 with three strikeouts in the series.

“I don’t think there’s a real blueprint on how to come back from this,” Thomson said. “We just had to sort of wait it out, see how long it took to get through his system. Finally, it did, but it was a little bit too late. We couldn’t give him the proper rehab to get him ready for the playoffs.”

Still, Hays left an impression on his manager.

“He really showed his toughness, grinding through it even though he was sick,” Thomson said. “I take my hat off to him. Austin is a real pro.”

Hays was not surprised the Phillies declined to offer him a contract.

“I knew anything could happen this offseason,” he said, “just because of how things went.”

The team’s decision, Dombrowski said, was driven in part by its reluctance to close off the market. Virtually every other free-agent outfielder finished the season healthy.

By the end of the season, Hays’ lab results were back to normal. He just needed to regain his stamina. Upon returning home to DeLand, Florida, he immediately resumed training, starting with light workouts and continuing in a slow, steady progression.

“My personality is back,” Hays said. “My brain is firing on all cylinders. I wake up in the morning and I just feel like myself.”

Before last season, Hays was an above-average offensive player with a career .751 on-base plus slugging percentage, including a .779 mark against left-handed pitching. Dombrowski said after the trade that the Phillies had tried to acquire him at each of the previous two deadlines.

“I expect him, wherever he ends up, to have a much better year than, certainly, he had with us,” Thomson said.

Hays carries the same expectation.

“I know I didn’t live up to what I know I can do as a ballplayer,” he said. “I want the offseason to fly by so I can get to next year and show everybody ‘This is me.’ What you saw last year, that’s a shell of me. If I can hit .260 with a kidney infection, what can I do when I’m healthy?”

Considering everything he went through, the question seems fair.