"At the beginning, I didn't know what I was dealing with, which is the part I was worried about the most," Baldelli said. "Once I finally got an understanding of how to deal with it, I finally relaxed. But that took a while for me to get a grip on.
"The trainers and doctors I was working with spent a lot of time and a lot of hours trying to come up with something. It took a while, but eventually we worked with the right people and I got out there.
"I was tinkering with different things that would help me physically, medications and stuff like that. It's something that I found the right mix and I was able to get out there."
Though he wasn't able to play in back-to-back games with the Rays after he came back, there was a relief just being on the field and helping his team. In a short career in which he has already had more than his share of doctor visits, Baldelli would rather not spend his time mired in what-could-have-been.
"You just deal with it," he said. "Obviously, no one's career goes exactly how they planned it. In some ways it has, in other ways, obviously, it hasn't.
"I just deal with it. You can't feel bad for yourself. That's definitely one thing. There's not too many people feeling bad for you. There's no use complaining. As an athlete, you deal with what's been dealt to you. You go out there and do anything to get out there."
Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjamin@globe.com.