Parrott weighs options after big league release

Published 11:32 pm Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Former Northwest Whitfield star right-hander Rhett Parrott has hit a roadblock on the comeback trail after being given his release by a St. Louis Cardinals’ Class A affiliate on Friday.

Parrott, who last month began his second comeback bid from serious arm problems, had been assigned to the Palm Beach Cardinals on July 7 after four successful rehab starts for the State College Spikes of the New York-Penn League.

The 26-year-old Tunnel Hill native made one start for Palm Beach, giving up eight runs and six hits in 1/3 of an inning.

Parrott said he was surprised by news of his release but accepted it.

“You never know what’s going to happen in baseball,” Parrott said in a telephone conversation from his home near Jupiter, Fla. “I responded to it as you would any other situation — I accept it and I will move on.”

Parrott said he has no immediate baseball plans.

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen,” he said. “My wife (Allison) and I are looking at some different options right now, thinking about it and praying.”

Parrott missed almost two years of baseball after initially being shelved with shoulder problems in 2004. He underwent surgery on his right rotator cuff and labrum and did not pitch in 2005.

The right-hander said that when he began rehab last month in Pennsylvania, he had “good and bad days” with the shoulder.

“At times it felt OK, at other times it bothered me,” said Parrott, named to The Daily Citizen’s All-Area team three times from 1995-97. “You never knew how it was going to feel.”

Parrott anchored the staff at Georgia Tech from 1999-2001, earning Baseball America’s second-team preseason All-America honors his final year. He was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the ninth round of the 2001 amateur draft and reported to the Cape Cod League in June of that year.

By 2003, Parrott was named one of the top 10 prospects in the Cardinals’ farm system by Baseball America. He was invited to the Cardinals’ spring training in 2003 and 2004 and appeared to be on a track to the majors before experiencing arm problems in the spring of 2004.

For now, Parrott said he will miss most the friendships he has developed with teammates during his big league journey.

“That’s the tough thing,” he said. “(The release) is a part of the game. It happens every day. But the hard thing is that you have made friends coming up that you won’t be around.

“You keep in contact with them and move on.”