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Phillies Notes: After two elbow surgeries, Billingsley is back in big leagues

ATLANTA - While he rehabilitated from the Tommy John surgery that ended his 2013 season after just two starts, Chad Billingsley said he could somewhat envision the day of his return to the mound.

Phillies pitcher Chad Billingsley. (Steven M. Falk/Staff Photographer)
Phillies pitcher Chad Billingsley. (Steven M. Falk/Staff Photographer)Read more

ATLANTA - While he rehabilitated from the Tommy John surgery that ended his 2013 season after just two starts, Chad Billingsley said he could somewhat envision the day of his return to the mound.

But when he tore his flexor tendon while he was on the comeback trail, Billingsley questioned whether he would ever get back.

"And here I am right now," he said with a big smile Monday afternoon at Turner Field, "taking the field [Tuesday] and pitching on a big-league mound."

More than two years since his last major-league start, Billingsley will officially complete his long road back from consecutive elbow surgeries Tuesday night against the Braves. The 30-year-old righthander will make his Phillies debut - he signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract in late January - after 11 years in the Dodgers organization.

Billingsley, a 2009 all-star with a 3.65 career ERA, used four rehab starts with triple-A Lehigh Valley to build his pitch count. On Thursday he threw 99 pitches, his most since Aug. 19, 2012.

The need for the flexor tendon operation arose last year while Billingsley was pitching rehab outings on his way back from Tommy John surgery. After the second surgery came three months of inactivity with his arm - no lifting a suitcase or picking up grocery bags - and there was a lot of time to just think.

"There's a lot of time to get in your own head," he said. "You just sit back and you think: Man, how much fun it was to be out there pitching and competing every fifth day."

Billingsley said he didn't watch "a whole lot" of baseball while rehabbing but there were times he would enjoy a game and reminisce. If the TV showed a team he often faced, he might think about how he would approach the opposition as if he were on the mound.

That aspect of baseball has been missing from his life for the last couple of years. Even more recently, instead of scouting hitters and strategizing to face a lineup, he's had to prepare for steps of his rehab and bullpen sessions.

Upon news of his impending major-league return, Billingsley's cellphone buzzed with text messages from former teammates around the league. Before Monday's series opener in Atlanta, he embraced and chatted with Braves starter Eric Stults, a teammate of Billingsley's in the minors and for four years with the Dodgers.

"It's a little bit of, I guess, a different excitement from being called up as a rookie [than] coming back from multiple surgeries," Billingsley said. "It hasn't really sunk in yet. . . . I'm just happy my next time I take the mound it's going to be on a big-league field."