The Twins supplied Devin Smeltzer with ample run support last Tuesday afternoon in Detroit and he knew exactly what to do with it — he filled up the strike zone and made well-located pitches.

These days, Smeltzer is throwing two pitches from a new arm slot whenever the game plan allows for it. And once again, he’s varying the speeds of his pitches to make them more effective.

Smeltzer is throwing the ball as well as he can remember. He is in a decidedly better position now than he was a year ago.

Back then, his fastball velocity had severely dipped. His pinpoint command had abandoned him. And even though Smeltzer, 26, was experiencing numbness in his fingers, nobody understood why for several frustrating months.

Though Smeltzer had questions, no one had answers until after he collapsed during a bullpen session in mid-June. The startling incident scared Smeltzer and sent him to the hospital, where he finally received a diagnosis.

Smeltzer hadn’t been experiencing arm or elbow issues as everyone suspected. He instead was slowed by a herniated disc in his neck, an injury that would require a four-week shutdown of all physical activities.

“It was almost a sigh of relief,” Smeltzer said. “It gave me answers on why I was feeling the way I was feeling. The way the neck doctor explained it was I would have kept rehabbing my elbow over and over again until my neck finally presented itself because my arm was never hurt. It was because of the neck. Once that came out, we were able to just attack it, rehab it, do what I needed to do to get ready. Then velo came back, feel came back, everything came back.”

Tuesday’s outing provided more evidence about how good Smeltzer is feeling.

He made his fourth successful start in four tries, allowing two earned runs in 6 2/3 innings and giving the Twins much-needed length. He’s averaging six innings per start and has a 1.50 ERA for a rotation currently without four starting pitchers.

Devin Smeltzer's 6Ks thru 6. pic.twitter.com/w2wr1GrtS3

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 27, 2022

After months of not knowing, Smeltzer had an idea he was on the path to health as far back as last August.

Though he’d only been playing catch for a few weeks, throwing from 90 feet hadn’t felt as good in quite a while. The enthusiasm only increased as Smeltzer’s rehab continued. He shed 15-20 pounds and pitched in simulated games in camp in October.

Smeltzer was so excited about the work he’d put in that Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson started receiving videos of the throwing sessions during the offseason. While he was intrigued, Johnson remained guarded. Then Smeltzer arrived in minor-league camp in February.

“When I saw him live, it was like, ‘Wow, Devin you look as good as you’ve looked.’ We’re really excited,” Johnson said.

The progression has only continued. Because he’d been removed from the 40-man roster in November 2021, Smeltzer was able to arrive at big-league camp in February while the big leaguers were locked out. With fewer pitchers in camp, Smeltzer had a bigger audience with Johnson and the coaching staff and started to put together a fantastic spring.

When the games began, Smeltzer was outstanding. He pitched 11 scoreless innings but it wasn’t enough to make the Opening Day roster. He followed with more success at Triple A. And with the Twins rotation short-handed because of injuries, Smeltzer has carried over his success to the majors.

“This is the best he’s ever been,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said.

April 24, 2021, was a confounding day. Smeltzer pitched in relief during a loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Something was amiss.

Smeltzer’s line from the outing doesn’t offer any indication as to what happened; he yielded one unearned run, a hit and a walk in 4 2/3 innings.

His Statcast numbers tell a different story.

“I reared back and threw a fastball to a guy as hard as I could,” Smeltzer said. “Blew it by him, looked up, it was 84, and I was like, ‘Something isn’t right.’”

When he first arrived in the majors in 2019, Smeltzer’s average fastball was 89.1 mph. His velocity dropped in 2020 to 87.5 mph. But the 85.5 mph average Smeltzer registered on the 21 fastballs he threw against the Pirates was alarming.

There’d been times during spring training 2021 when Smeltzer felt he wasn’t healthy. Three of the fingers on his left hand were numb because of nerve issues. His command was bad — “I couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn,” he said.

“You know something is going on,” Johnson said. “We’ve gotta go figure it out. You don’t know what it is.”

Following the Pittsburgh game, Smeltzer had an MRI. He was certain the test would reveal an issue with his forearm or elbow. But no damage was revealed and Smeltzer only grew more frustrated.

“Everything was pretty clean,” Smeltzer said. “(You) kind of feel like you’re going crazy.”

Smeltzer stayed with the Twins and rehabbed his elbow throughout May. In early June, Smeltzer returned to the team’s Fort Myers, Fla., complex to pitch in camp games against minor leaguers and other rehabbing players.

Though he wasn’t certain about his health, Smeltzer pushed forward. His rehab was nearly complete. But in his second-to-last outing, Smeltzer felt a jolt and collapsed to the ground while warming up in the bullpen.

“Something grabbed,” Smeltzer said. “(The doctor) thinks it hit the nerve and that’s what sent me into the shock. … It took me to my knees. (They put on the) collar, ambulance, everything. It was scary. But after I calmed down emotionally a few days later, it was a sigh of relief, knowing that I wasn’t crazy.”

After he was released from the hospital, Smeltzer was told to immediately stop all physical activity. One misstep could cost him weeks. He was even chastised by the Twins medical staff for trying to walk on a treadmill at the team facility.

“(The doctor) fear mongered a little bit, a lot of threats — ‘This is more than baseball. If you don’t listen to me, you’re really going to mess up your life,’” Smeltzer said. “It was four weeks of nothing. I got yelled at by some of the minor-league staff … they wanted me to do absolutely nothing. I listened, grinded it out and just trusted that if I listened I’d be fine.”

Smeltzer couldn’t recall when his neck herniation occurred. The doctor told Smeltzer the herniation was so slight he might not have discovered it if he worked a 9-to-5 job.

But the slightest tweak can make all the difference for an athlete. Even something as silly as sitting in the wrong position for enough time could force the rehab process to be restarted. The Twins asked Smeltzer to exercise extreme caution.

“With those injuries, it doesn’t take much to flare back up and set you back several days or weeks,” Twins physical trainer Christian Hintz said. “That’s really what we were trying to avoid. … We were definitely taking slower steps at first and it’s tough on you, mentally, to be at that snail’s pace and be that cautious early on and then wait to hit the gas. It takes a lot of mental fortitude on that front.”

While he doesn’t have the high-end velocity of most of his counterparts, Smeltzer may have more fortitude than all of them combined. He was diagnosed with pelvic rhabdomyosarcoma at age nine after doctors discovered a tumor connected to his prostate had grown against his bladder.

Though he still sometimes deals with long-term effects of radiation and chemotherapy — a hormone issue affected his weight last year — Smeltzer has been cancer-free for a decade. Even if it could affect his career, a herniation was nothing compared to what he has experienced before.

“I’m sure it was a little scary for him,” Baldelli said. “But this is a guy that has looked a lot of things in the face in his life and dealt with them and gotten past them and succeeded. So whatever went on last year, probably would be one of the scariest times in a guy’s life, this guy has dealt with worse. Much worse.”

Pretty cool story here… Chase Utley reuniting with Devin Smeltzer who met him first as a 10 year old battling cancer. pic.twitter.com/ov02BTMIOB

— Philly Nation (@Philly__Nation) May 7, 2020

All Smeltzer could do was remain patient. But he was determined to not let the injury end his playing career.

“You’re going to have to kill me to get me off the field,” Smeltzer said. “When you overcome something like I did as a kid, you either run from it or you embrace it. I think that’s turned me into the determined person I am today. Challenges are fun. Yeah, they’re challenges and they can be hard and you’re going to have your dark periods. But when it comes down to it, my core values and what I’ve been molded into won’t let me fold.”

Once he was cleared for action last year, Smeltzer started to work with Hintz at the minor-league facility. He resumed physical activity in early August, often arriving at the facility before sunrise most days to beat the rush of players who needed to work with the organization’s physical therapists.

“He’s a grinder,” Hintz said. “Every day he comes in: ‘How can I get better today?’ He knew he was going to be down for a long time.”

The inactivity and hormone issue caused Smeltzer to gain about 20 pounds. Pre-injury, Smeltzer weighed 190 pounds. He ballooned to 210. But by the time he pitched again in October, Smeltzer was back down to 190. During the offseason, he added a fit 15-20 pounds to his frame that has him hovering around 205.

“You knew it was going to take some time — it wasn’t going to be an overnight fix,” Johnson said. “You’ve got to be very impressed with what he’s done. His weight is back up. His body is back up. His stuff has ticked up. His neck is better.”

The way Smeltzer feels has allowed him to make physical alterations to his delivery.

Though he rarely faces left-handed hitters in the American League Central, Smeltzer has begun throwing a fastball and slider from a lower-slot arm angle to pair with his other offerings. They’re good weapons to have when he pitches to opponents outside the division.

“When things are going well and your body is moving the way it should, you have the ability to manipulate pitches better,” Smeltzer said. “When you’re feeling this good, you want to take advantage of that and try to ingrain it and implement it as much as possible so that it sticks.”

Johnson estimates the low-slot slider is a pitch Smeltzer would only use two percent of the time. Still, the Twins have put time into developing the slider and a fastball from the lowered angle to provide Smeltzer with another way to effectively attack lefties.

“We’re still at the infant stages,” Johnson said. “You’ve got to be able to throw two pitches from down there or any time you drop down they’ll know a slider is coming. For me, we’re getting there.”

Despite his great start, Smeltzer is still figuring things out.

He’s able to do things with a baseball he hasn’t for several years. He’s varying the speeds of his pitches with the realization that throwing his fastball between 86-92 mph is better than maxing out at 89-92. He aims to throw his changeup with a four-mile variance between the low end and the upper end.

And the curveball? Days like Tuesday, when the curveball featured velocities ranging from 68-76 mph, are the goal.

“That’s intentional,” Smeltzer said. “I’m able to move the ball around and change speeds again. Just ripping my 89-92 mph isn’t going to make me successful. Making it two pitches is going to make me successful. … I’m starting to get my eyes back. You have to pitch to keep those eyes. You have to see what the hitters are doing to know what you need to do. Not having those reps hurt me to an extent. But it’s starting to click again.”

The timing couldn’t be better for the Twins.

Tuesday was the second straight start in which Smeltzer pitched into the seventh inning, a feat Twins pitchers have only accomplished six times in 54 games this season. Smeltzer’s tied for the team lead in that category along with Sonny Gray and Joe Ryan.

He could have a chance to gain ground Sunday at Toronto. Gray was added to the injured list on Thursday and can’t return until June 14. Ryan still hasn’t returned to the team after a positive COVID-19 test. Chris Paddack is out for the season and Josh Winder is on the 15-day IL.

“He’s throwing the ball very confidently,” Baldelli said of Smeltzer. “He’s commanding the ball very confidently. He’s commanding as good as he ever has. You couldn’t ask for more from this guy right now than what he’s giving us. But again, he’s been like this all year long. From the first day of camp when he showed up, he was really on top of his stuff and ready to pitch. He’s been very consistent and consistently good.”

(Photo: David Berding / Getty Images)