Gillies grateful for baseball — and for life

Tyler Gillies overcame cancer to continue a career in the minor leagues. Now, with new perspective, he’s loving the game of baseball again pitching in his hometown for the London Majors.

(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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Tyler Gillies pops out of the Majors dugout not needing to use every stair. There’s an extra spring in his step today – as there are most days. Wearing London’s crisp white pinstripes, his eyes squint slightly as the afternoon sun envelops Labatt Park. The chatter of teammates echoes across the field as he jogs to the outfield to shag a few flyballs. For Gillies, his life is all about perspective these days.

“I get to hang out with my friends and play baseball,” boasts the 29-year-old in a self-satisfied tone. It’s a sharp contrast to just a couple of years ago when the London native wasn’t sure he’d be able to play the game he’s always loved. Or, for that matter, be living at all. Cancer has a way of doing that.

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Sports was always part of growing up for Gillies. The Mother Theresa Secondary School grad seemed to have his hand in everything – soccer, hockey, football, swimming and, of course, baseball. The latter is where he stood out. He was a baseball guy. His younger brother, Ryan, would act as his batterymate as he brought the heat.

“He did catch me for a bit, but he was more focused on academics. He’s now a surgeon, so I refer to him as the brains of the operation,” laughed Gillies, who turned his focus to the diamond. As a 16-year-old pitching in the London Badgers program, his fastball was already hitting 85mph.

“I started to feel it that year … that there was something there,” said Gillies, who regularly worked out with Adam Arnold, a pitching coordinator at Centrefield Sports who is now an associate scout with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Gillies quickly caught the attention of Jay Lapp, a Londoner and Milwaukee Brewers scout at the time, who knew the coaches at the University of British Columbia and encouraged the right-hander to take his baseball skills out west.

Gillies heard back from UBC quickly, but he also had scholarship offers from some schools in the States (both Division II and Division 1 programs). After speaking with fellow Londoner Jeff Francis, who attended UBC before embarking on a successful 11-year career in the major leagues, Gillies choose to stay this side of the border.

(Photo: Wild Ave Photography).

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“It’s a little different staying in Canada for baseball, but you're in a smaller pond so you have more folks to help you focus on developing as a player,” he said. After talking with UBC’s head coach, Terry McKaig, and seeing the campus and the facilities, Gillies immediately fell in love with the school and was convinced it was the place to be.

“I was excited to be out there. Both my parents had gone away for school when they were playing sports, so they were really encouraging and wanted me to have that same experience.”

Gillies says his coaches and the staff at UBC played a significant role in developing him into more of a complete pitcher. By his third year, the right-hander was hitting mid-90s on the radar gun and receiving interest from scouts. In his final season, he left the bullpen and became a starter. It just wasn’t the same, Gillies recalled. He dealt with injuries that impacted his performance. He was passed over in the 2017 MLB Draft.

“I just knew it wasn’t going to happen” he said.

But he also knew he wasn’t going to give up on the game that easily.

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After school, Gillies signed with the Québec Capitales of the Can-Am League, and then he spent the 2018 summer back in Ontario pitching for the IBL’s Brantford Red Sox. The plan was to return to Quebec the following year to play for Les Capitales again.

In preparation, Gillies travelled to Seattle in early 2019 to train at Driveline Baseball, one of the top data-driven baseball player development organizations. He was at the top of his game, and it showed. Driveline holds a Pro Day each year where MLB and other professional scouts assess players looking for a shot with a big-league organization.

“I threw in front of probably every single team’s scout there,” he remembers. “All 30 teams had someone there. I knew I’d done enough to maybe get some interest. I felt it was the best I’d thrown in a while.”

He was right. The next day, the phone rang. The Brewers were interested, and they extended an invitation to MLB Spring Training in Arizona.

“There was definitely a lot of excitement going on for me, let me tell you.” Gillies recalls, with a wide smile. “At that point, I remember going down to Spring Training and it was a brand-new facility at that time. It was like, ‘Wow, this is cool. This is fantastic.’”

And the good times continued. Gillies went through Spring Training without allowing a run. He remained realistic, though, knowing there are no guarantees in baseball. Hot one minute, cut the next. But there would be no cuts this time around.

The Brewers told him they loved how he was throwing, and that a spot would soon open up with the Timber Rattlers, the team’s Single-A squad. Gillies was off to Wisconsin.

In his first season in pro ball, he produced some solid numbers. Over 42 games, Gillies went 5-2 with a 3.17 ERA, a 1.15 WHIP and 65 strikeouts over 54 innings. Coaches liked what they saw from the 24-year-old righty. The future was bright. But while the strength of his arm was turning heads in the game of baseball, his strength of character would soon be tested in the game of life.

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Gillies returned to London following his first season in the minor leagues. The plan was simple. Move back home, train hard, keep throwing, and get stronger. “Maybe I’d head back to BC, work with the team there,” he recalled. “Just recharge and be ready for next season.”

Then he noticed a lump in his neck.

It wasn’t visible at the time – it was more like a kink in his neck that was sore. He didn’t think much about it at the time. But while working out in Scarborough, a trainer spoke to Gillies about it and said it felt like a lymph node. He recommended Gillies get it checked out, just to be on the safe side. The initial diagnosis was nothing to worry about. He was told the swelling would likely go down.

But Gillies noticed he was tired all the time. He felt sick and had a nagging cough. And the lump on his neck was not going away. In fact, it was getting bigger. Something wasn’t right.

“Then I really began to be concerned that something was wrong when I felt the same thing under my armpit,” he said, adding that it was, ironically, “the size of a baseball.”

(Photo: Wild Ave Photography).

At the end of December 2019, he was referred directly to London Health Sciences where a biopsy confirmed the worst. Something was, indeed, wrong. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the lymphatic system, which is part of the body's germ-fighting and disease-fighting immune system. Hodgkin lymphoma begins when healthy cells in the lymphatic system change and grow out of control.

While most people dread hearing the word cancer, Gillies admitted that his first thought was worrying about his baseball career.

“I got a call from the doctor who did the biopsy, and he explained everything to me, how it was treatable, and how the survival rate at this stage was 90%,” he said. “So, I was like, ‘Perfect. Okay, I'm not really worried about this. Let’s get it done.’”

Chemotherapy began immediately, and it lasted around four months, extending past the time he was to report for the 2020 baseball season. But Gillies remained confident he’d be back pitching that season (before COVID-19 brought everything to a halt).

He had family and friends in his corner to help him get through it. His dad, Jeff, made a calendar for him with every month featuring a different picture of him growing up playing baseball. The final picture was of him pitching in Wisconsin the previous summer. His agent sent him a glove with the words ‘Never Give In’ stitched on the side. His support team was not lacking – and even the Brewers organization had his back.

“They were amazing,” said Gillies, who was well aware that baseball is a business. He wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d moved on from him. “They set up a group call with me and they were just so supportive. They told me don't even worry about baseball right now. Get yourself healthy, and if you need anything let us know.

“For them to say, ‘You know what, we got your back’ was huge for me because it took away the burden of worrying about my future path at the moment. And I’m close with my family and they were there for me every step of the way.”

Gillies’ grit and determination, along with the help of London doctors, saw him wrap up chemotherapy in late May of 2020. He rang the bell at the cancer centre, signifying the end of treatment. The Brewers said take your time, get back to feeling well and they’d see him in 2021. He was feeling great.

But Gillies’ resolve was about to be put to the test yet again.

The cancer returned.

(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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It was late summer 2020, and Gillies had been cancer free for a good three months. He believed that part of his life was in the rearview mirror. But a routine checkup turned his life upside down yet again. The prognosis this time was not the greatest. The initial 90% survival rate became 50/50 with the latest diagnosis.

“It’s like a flip of the coin now,” said Gillies, who began chemotherapy again a month later, followed in early 2021 with a stem cell transplant, which uses high-dose chemotherapy to kill all the cells in the bone marrow. That includes both healthy cells and the lymphoma cells. After high-dose chemotherapy, healthy stem cells are given to replace the ones in the bone marrow that were destroyed.

“This one (stem cell treatment) hit me harder, much harder than the chemo,” recalls Gillies who, with his immune system compromised, was required to spend significant time in a vacuum-sealed room due to possible exposure to COVID-19. His playing weight of around 220 pounds prior to cancer treatment had quickly dropped to 170 pounds.

“It got me pretty good,” he said.

This time around, Gillies admits that his focus shifted to life rather than baseball. His anxiety grew to the point of getting physically ill just thinking about having to drive to the hospital for his chemotherapy treatment.

“The first time I was sick, I wasn't worried a lot about my own health. I was like, ‘I got this’ and I figured I’d be back playing soon,” he said. “The second time, it was, ‘I need to actually worry about this.’ I wasn't training this time around. I was simply focused on doing everything I possibly could to get healthy.”

Once again, the Brewers stepped up to the plate. Gillies began talking with a team staff psychologist to help with the anxiety issues by working on mental strategies to stay positive during such a difficult time. And, as before, the team told him just to focus on his health and that they’d be there when he was ready to return.

(Photo: Wild Ave Photography).

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Take two for the comeback.

Back healthy, Gillies was back on the mound in Wisconsin to start the 2022 season. He was thrilled that the Brewers were giving him yet another chance to impress. But something was off. In 23 games, Gillies struggled to a 6.58 ERA in just 29 innings.

“Obviously, I wasn't ready. It was a different feeling coming back this time,” he said, adding that he went from throwing in the upper 90s to barely touching 92mph. “I'd lost so much muscle during (treatment), and I hadn't thrown in a game situation in almost two years. My arm never felt like it got back anywhere close to what it was before.”

His curveball was still effective, and he tried to add a sinker to his repertoire, but it was tough slogging. It wasn’t anything like his pre-cancer days. At the end of the 2022 season, the Timber Rattlers released Gillies. He tried to continue training, with the hopes of catching the eye of another team willing to give him a shot. But it was not to be.

“At that point, I wasn’t really having fun throwing anymore. My arm hurt. I was in a lot of pain all the time,” he said. “I gave it a good four to five months, but at the end of that time I was just like, ‘I'm kind of done with it.’ I was trying, but eventually you got to tell yourself that you’re done. And I was ok with that.”

And done he was.

He didn’t pick up a ball once in 2023. In fact, he didn’t even watch baseball. It was too depressing. He headed back out west to UBC to finish a teaching degree (he begins his first teaching job this fall in Woodstock, where he’ll be teaching kindergarten).

But while in BC, Gillies stepped across the white lines for the first time in quite a while – this time as a coach. He worked with the UBC varsity team, and the love for the game he once excelled at was heating up again.

“That was my first step back into the game. I started watching baseball again, and I watched a bunch of my old teammates making their debuts. It was cool being around the game again,” Gillies recalled, with a smile. “Suddenly, I didn't want to leave the park. It was just awesome. I slowly started throwing on my own again and my arm didn’t hurt anymore. So back in March, I thought, ‘Let's try and throw hard again.”

Was a third comeback in the cards?

(Photo: Matt Hiscox Photography).

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Years ago, whenever he was in London, Gillies would sometimes work out with the Majors, and he’d built a relationship with Roop Chanderdat, the team’s GM and field manager. He was also familiar with some of the players from his time playing in Brantford – and from growing up in London.

“(Pitching) started to come back and I began thinking, I may want to do this. It could be fun to pitch again,” said Gillies. “I started thinking about when I finish my program at UBC in the summer and come back home, what if I come back and play for London and see how it goes.”

At the end of July, Gillies inked a deal with his hometown team and a week later he got his first taste of game action.

“I was so excited to be back playing. I was ready to go. I think that first game was the hardest I’d thrown in years. I was just so hyped to be there,” he said. “The next time I went out, I was a bit more relaxed and was able to simply throw the ball.”

In four games so far, Gillies has pitched 11 1/3 innings in relief with 15 strikeouts and two saves. In his second appearance, he picked up a four-inning save against Chatham-Kent on the Civic Holiday game at Labatt Park.

While the competitive level of the Intercounty Baseball League is strong, the cutthroat pressure to produce has lessened from when he was in the minor leagues with the Brewers organization. That has allowed Gillies to, well, enjoy himself.

“It's fun. It's a lot of fun,” he nodded with confidence, already stating he’ll be ready to play a full season with the Majors in 2025. “It’s amazing just to be out there, being down in the bullpen with the guys. Playing baseball is fun again.”

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This September, when Gillies steps into the classroom as a full-time teacher, one of the first things he may want to teach his students is something he knows a lot about – perspective.

“Everything that I’ve been through has given me a lot of perspective on life,” he said. “You go through something like this, and you learn very quickly not to take things for granted. Being able to put a uniform back on, I don’t take it for granted, and I make sure to enjoy it.

“Nothing else seems like a big deal when you have your health. I just keep thinking tomorrow is another day and I get to play baseball.”

Perspective is a good thing.