Rockies reliever Scott Oberg isn’t sure what his future as a player holds yet, but he knows one thing for sure: Baseball will always be a part in his life. 

Oberg had surgery Thursday afternoon to remove a blood clot from his right arm, his fourth recurrence with the issue. It’s too early to know if he’ll be able to return as a player. 

“Baseball is always going to be on my mind,” he said.  “It’s been on my mind since I was a kid, since I started playing the game. It’ll always be on my mind going forward. My thought process right now is just overall general health, making sure I’m there for my family. 

Oberg pitched in the B game Wednesday and was playing catch Thursday when he felt some tightness in his forearm. His hand started to cramp, then it turned white and went numb. The trainer wasn’t able to find a pulse in his wrist. 

Having gone through this before, Oberg knew what those symptoms probably indicated. They called his vascular surgeon in Philadelphia, who called a surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz. Oberg went to the emergency room and underwent tests. He had the surgery later that day and was released from the hospital Friday. 

“It is a little nerve-racking,” Oberg said. “Probably more nerve-racking for my family than for myself. My wife was amazing.”

Oberg first experienced a blood clot in 2018, then again in 2019 and 2020. He had surgery in September in Philadelphia and was hopeful that would fix the issue.

He recovered from that procedure and was just a week away from playing in his first regular-season game since 2019 when he felt the symptoms flare up again. 

“It’s been hard, not going to lie,” Oberg said. “I think this one may be a little harder than the other ones. Just the overall overwhelming support I’ve gotten from people in this building, coaching staff, players, kitchen staff, front office, you know up and down the list you name it, has been great.”

Oberg, who is the team’s player association representative, said he hopes he can be around the team in some capacity this season, but he isn’t sure what that will look like.

He plans to consult with specialists in the coming weeks to see if another comeback is possible. 

“I haven’t had any regrets with any of the decisions that I’ve made in this game,” he said. “I think a lot of the times people forget that it’s never really easy to be at the top of your field to kind of have it taken away.”