This is a story about redemption.
Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Josh Ravin has watched his career take a downward spiral this season as injuries, controversy, and rifts with teammates have damaged his chances of playing the game he loves.
Now, after injuries have riddled the Dodgers roster, Ravin's been granted a reprieve and has returned to the team, ready for a rebirth as he rises like the phoenix from the ashes of his past.
Ravin re-entered the Dodgers clubhouse on Monday for the first time in over a year, sporting an unnecessary beard he deemed his "prison beard." Appropriate for a man whose self-imposed imprisonment occurred after he was suspended 80 games for violating MLB's performance-enhancing drug policy.
The suspension put the final nail in a coffin that had been building since Ravin's big league debut on June 2, 2015. Ravin appeared in nine games last season, but he did not make the team's playoff roster and it all unraveled from there.
In October, his brother was shot five times at his West Hills home after a robbery gone wrong. In February, he fell ill with the flu and lost nearly 20 pounds. After a recovery program prescribed by doctors, Ravin regained his strength and returned to the mound for the team's Spring Training at Camelback Ranch in Arizona, but he broke his left forearm in a traffic accident a few miles away from the team's training facility.
Two months later, while still rehabbing from his injury, Ravin was suspended by MLB for ingesting Growth Hormone Releasing Peptide 2, a banned substance in the game of baseball. Ravin says he consumed a sports drink while recuperating from the flu in February, as the reason behind the positive test, and he appealed the decision for months before he finally accepted the punishment.
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"I screwed up. I did something I shouldn't have done, I knew I probably shouldn't have, but no one knows where I was mentally, physically," Ravin told an Oklahoma City newspaper earlier this month. "The past few months, it's been time to think, time to grow, time to help people around me."
Now, like the Phoenix, Ravin is reborn and has turned his anger and frustration into unrequited rage and a thirst for vengeance. He envisions himself more as a predator on the mound, attacking his prey as they swing meekly from the batter's box.
"You're not going to touch my stuff," he said to Jacob Unruh of NewsOK. "It's you against me, it's predator-versus-prey and I'm not the prey. I'm tired of being the prey. When I'm out there I have all this stuff and it's just made me stronger."
Ravin now has plenty of bulletin board material and thus far his new mentality as worked on the mound. The West Hills native has not allowed a run in 5 and 1/3 innings at both the minor league and Major League level since his return, and he doesn't plan on surrendering some any time soon.
"I want to destroy everyone. I want to punch out all the hitters," Ravin said of his new mindset on the mound. "This is how I want to deal with the anger and negativity. I have an edge now. It's the predator mentality."
Ravin was recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City on Monday after the Dodgers placed reliever Joe Blanton on the bereavement list. Ravin was expected to be sent back down on Friday, when Blanton returned, but after two impressive appearances, the team demoted left-hander Luis Avilon instead.
"It's a relief. I've spent eight years trying to get here and the last three months just sitting waiting to see if I got back here," Ravin said of his return to the big leagues. "I'm fresh and think I can help this team with whatever they need. I owe that to them."
Ravin still knows he has a lot of work to do as far as his public persona is considered and still needs to sway casual fans back to his side. Despite being unable to find a silver lining in this ordeal, Ravin tries to remain positive and knows he has a lot of rebuilding of relationships to do with fans and teammates.
"I'm still trying to find out what to take from all of it," he said. "All I can really take from it was that it was all negative and I have to stay positive. There's always someone going through worse.
