13-05-2025
Tampa Bay Rays' Eric Orze ‘Blessed' For How Cancer Changed Him
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Eric Orze high-fives teammates during a game against the Kansas City Royals, ... More Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
Eric Orze stood in front of his locker in the Tampa Bay Rays' clubhouse at Steinbrenner Field discussing how fortunate and blessed he is for having to endure what likely would have kept most other young adults from achieving their career goals.
The righthanded pitcher was with the University of New Orleans in 2018 when he learned the reason why what was tolerable discomfort grew into something unbearable as the season moved along. He had testicular cancer. At age 20.
'It was never anything bad enough to be concerned about,' he recalled. 'Then one morning I woke up in excruciating pain. I was like, 'I don't know what's going on, but I need something to kill this pain.' It was that uncomfortable.'
Not that the Illinois native could have possibly imagined he had a tumor-ravaged testicle.
'I didn't think about what was potentially wrong, it was more of, 'What can we do to get rid of this pain because it's unbearable,'" said Orze, who also had surgery to remove swollen lymph nodes and dealt with fluid in his lungs. "Of course, I obviously got the diagnosis.'
It would not be the only one Orze would receive. A few months later, after having turned 21, physicians noticed a mole on his back that proved to be melanoma. It was a double whammy of misfortune for a young man wanting to enjoy his time as a college baseball player while working toward potentially getting drafted and embarking on a professional career.
Instead of being enveloped by feelings of fear, despair and conveniently adopting a 'Why me?' mindset, Orze held his head high and fought like the dickens to not just get back to where he left off, but with a heightened level of appreciation for life and those within it.
'It's part of my journey to this point,' he said. 'I am blessed that I had to go through it. It gave me a lot a life perspective, though it wasn't something I was expecting at 21 years old. It was crazy at the time, but it was a blessing in disguise and probably one of best things that could have ever happened to me.'
Orze spent two seasons at Northwest Florida State College, a junior college in the panhandle town of Niceville, prior to transferring to New Orleans ahead of the 2018 season. He pitched in nine games before he was sidelined and did not take the mound again for the Privateers until 2020.
The 6-foot-4 and 205-pound Orze – pronounced OAR-zee – credits the folks in New Orleans, those with university, the professionals that tended to his medical care and every day good people, for rebounding. While parents Rick and Lynn, sister Stephanie and his girlfriend were with him every step of the way, if not literally then certain figuratively, Orze otherwise felt well cared for, which put him at ease.
'I had many people, genuinely good human beings, care for me," said Orze, who had the testicular cancer surgery performed in New Orleans and the melanoma procedure close to home in Illinois. "When I look back, it means the world to me to have been able to be comfortable during that time. It made me feel like, 'Hey, I am loved and comfortable here and we are going to get through this and we are going to get back into baseball.' I had so much love and support that it made it so much easier to progress through it all. Because of that, New Orleans will always have a place in my heart.'
Back on the mound, Orze was 3-0 with a 2.75 ERA when the pandemic shut down the season and virtually everything else. So, here he was, five months from turning 23 and with all of 13 appearances and 36 innings at the NCAA level.
'That part of it was like, 'OK, maybe I am not supposed to play pro ball or something,'' he said, laughing about what was a bizarre time. 'Obviously, it worked out.'
Even having missed essentially two full seasons due to cancer and the pandemic, Orze had enough of a track record at the collegiate level. He also had a very effective splitter, something he adopted as a young teen. While his ERA hovered around 5.00 in his two seasons of JUCO, he struck out 120 and walked only 24 in 123 innings. In 36 innings at UNO, it was 42/16. That's 162/40 for an impressive 4-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. It was good enough for the Mets to select Orze in the fifth round, 150th overall, in the 2020 draft.
'This is a kid who will not quit,' Mets VP of amateur scouting, Tommy Tanous, said at the time.
Not that Orze had given that any thought. On the contrary, he never lost sight of his professional goal even when everything seemed to conspire against him.
'A really cool moment that I have a ton of appreciation for was hearing my name called,' said Orze, of the draft. 'All I ever asked for was to get my foot in the door and put on a professional uniform. I am beyond grateful to the Mets for giving me that opportunity. I learned so much in that organization and the friends I made and the people I got close to, coordinators, the front office, players, coaches. It is all a huge part of me and who I am today.'
The Rays acquired the now-27-year-old pitcher from New York last November for center fielder Jose Siri.
'He was very forthcoming with his experiences,' said manager Kevin Cash, of a spring training meeting with Orze. 'Any player who has been through a lot on the field or off the field, you can really grow to appreciate really quickly."
Orze, who made his MLB debut with the Mets last season and made two appearances, was called up from Triple-A Durham in mid-April. He recorded his first career save in the Rays' 11-inning win at Arizona on April 3 and picked up another save against the visiting Brewers on May 9. Through May 11, Orze allowed only two earned runs in 14 1/3 innings in his first month with Tampa Bay.
'What he has done up here is give us some really good work,' said Cash. "He has handled every challenge like he has been there before, and has been on a very good run for us.'
Catcher Ben Rortvedt admires the many intangibles Orze brings to ballpark each day.
'I really appreciate the journey that he has been on and appreciate how strong of human being he is,' he said. 'He always comes into the clubhouse looking forward to the day and always prepares the right way.'
Orze rattles off the names of an impressive bullpen that also includes closer Pete Fairbanks, Manuel Rodriguez, Edwin Uceta and Garrett Cleavinger, among others. Orze has been there to answer the bell when most of his bullpen buddies need a breather.
'If there is any way that I can cover some outs and keep these guys fresher, make sure they have an extra day (of rest), that's really the goal,' he said. 'If it's three outs, it's three outs. If it's 12 outs, it's 12 outs. That's how I am going about it.'
PITTSBURGH: Eric Orze of the New York Mets makes his major league debut in the sixth inning during ... More the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on July 8, 2024 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by)
Orze has had several people reach out to him on social media platforms and other means to express how they are inspired not only by how he overcame so much to realize his dream of pitching in the majors, but the class with which he did.
'To know the way you are living your life allows other people to feel like they can achieve, or at least understand that any (set of circumstances) in front of them is possible to overcome, is a really humbling feeling,' he said. 'It's like, 'Me? I am someone that you are looking up to?' When I was away from home (during the initial cancer procedure and recovery), I looked up to those around me and never thought of anyone potentially learning something from me. So, when I hear that someone reached out and was like, 'Hey, I really appreciate how you did this, or you gave me this perspective, it's like, whoa.' It means that much more to know that someone is seeing what I am doing and appreciating it.'
If something is not going well on the mound? Big deal. Keep the head up of and learn from it. After all, in the much larger picture, that is exactly what Orze did during what could have been very, very dark days in a New Orleans hospital. Hence, to those who find themselves in a difficult situation regardless of setting, his message is rather simple.
'The better perspective you can have the better chance you are going to give yourself, whether it is recovering from something health related, sports, your career, or whatever it may be,' he said. 'I am a firm believer that the more you are in the mindset of learning, growing and getting better and you apply it to whatever it is that you are going up against, you are going to give yourself the best chance possible. That is all we can do.'
