READING, Pa. — As Shane Watson was attempting to get his minor-league baseball career off the ground a few years ago, there was an extended stretch where he only wanted to feel pain.
Not the agony of uncertainty. Not the rigors of rehab. Just the everyday aches and pains a season brings.
The right-hander was a first-round pick of the Phillies in 2012, after teaming up at Lakewood (Calif.) High School with shortstop J.P. Crawford, chosen 16th overall by the club a year later.
They reunited four years ago at Single A Lakewood — Crawford, the organization's top prospect, at the start of a journey that finds him at Triple A Lehigh Valley this season, and Watson before a pair of shoulder surgeries deprived him of half the '13 season and all of the next.
"It's hard seeing J.P. play every day," Watson, now at Double A Reading, said before Tuesday's game against New Hamsphire. "He'd come in and say, 'Oh, my swing didn't feel good today.' Or, 'I didn't feel that good at shortstop.'"
Not exactly what an idle player wants to hear.
"I wish I could not feel good," Watson said. "I don't have that luxury to not feel good. I can't go out there and do it."
MLB
He was back in 2015. He was better in 2016. This season, he is off to a 2-0, 3.72 start for Reading, and finding that once again, it hurts so good.
"That feeling of stuff paying off," he said, "is always a good thing."
Watson could be more efficient; he has not worked more than five innings in any of his four starts to date, while throwing between 87 and 94 pitches each time out. His 10 strikeouts have also been offset by 11 walks.
But he has worked five shutout innings in each of his last two outings, a victory over Richmond on April 23 and a no-decision Sunday against Portland. And Reading manager Greg Legg is encouraged.
"I was fortunate to see him at the beginning, when we drafted him, and it was pretty electric," said Legg, a Lakewood coach in 2013. "I'm starting to see signs of that. I'm starting to see that guy come back."
Watson said he's still getting a feel for his curveball, which he regards as his best pitch. Legg said he would like to see Watson rely more on his two-seamer, which would enable him to get more groundball outs and work deeper into games.
"I joke about it: 'Let (Malquin) Canelo play,'" Legg said, referring to Reading's shortstop.
The manager, however, has seen definite signs of growth — in no small part because Watson, who turns 24 in August, is now a husband and father. He and his wife, Allison, have an infant daughter named Luna.
"More than anything," Legg said, "we're pleased that we have a healthy Shane Watson and a more mature Shane Watson — a guy that's not only pitching for himself but pitching for his family. It's a good story. It's a real good story."
And still in its early chapters.
"Just got to keep it going," Watson said. "Still a real, real, real long season."
The road back has been just as lengthy. His travails commenced soon after the Phillies chose him with a compensatory pick, the 40th overall, in 2012. Watson, who goes 6-4 and 220 pounds, began dropping weight at an alarming weight — as many as 35 pounds when it was all said and done, he recalled.
And nobody seemed to know why.
"Some of the guys made jokes," he said. "They thought I had cancer."
Hilarious.
"I was really, really, really skinny," he said, "and it was kind of scary, hearing all this and not knowing what was going on."
When he was finally diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes, it was "kind of a relief," he said. He now controls it with daily insulin injections.
One question: How is he with needles?
"I'm OK now," he said. "At first I wasn't too good."
The shoulder problem was a detached labrum, leading to surgery midway through the '13 season, then a clean-up eight or nine months later.
After missing all of 2014, he served a 50-game suspension at the start of the next season for failing a pair of drug tests. When he finally resurfaced, he followed a pair of rocky starts in rookie ball with a 1-5, 4.53 line in nine appearances back at Lakewood.
Last year, he was "decent," he allowed — 6-7 with a 3.67 ERA while splitting time between Lakewood and High A Clearwater.
And now, once again, it's hurting so good. It's all he could have ever wished for.