SARASOTA, Fla. — Somewhat fittingly, it was basically just an audience of two. To Nate Webb, they were an important two.

In a nearly empty stadium Sunday, Webb faced hitters with his wife, Jessie, and their baby, Jonah, watching. The pair made Webb’s lonely road back from elbow and then Achilles surgeries a little less so, and now the 27-year-old reliever is healthy and trying to make his mark in Orioles camp.

Webb’s professional baseball journey, nearly a decade old, began on course for a fairy tale with his hometown Kansas City Royals. Since then, it’s given way to the simple, dogged pursuit of a major league dream, with enough perspective gained that merely facing hitters in a proper big league uniform in front of a sleeping 4-month-old is a memory and a milestone to hold dear.

“Any day with a uniform, I still have a chance,” Webb said. “That’s just my goal: to keep that uniform for as long as possible.”

Webb’s locker in Sarasota is beside that of Tomoyuki Sugano, the star Japanese pitcher who declared upon arriving at Orioles camp that he wanted to win a World Series. Webb just so happened to earn the spoils of that — a World Series ring — before his professional career even started.

He grew up in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, not far from Kansas City. His grandfather worked security at the Royals’ Kauffman Stadium. Webb was on the grounds crew as a teenager — and earned a World Series ring in 2015 for that role. Not long after, his hometown club made him its 36th-round pick in the 2016 draft.

He spent four seasons in rookie ball, then thrived in the bullpen when minor league baseball returned post-pandemic in 2021, striking out 89 batters in 59 1/3 innings to earn a spot on the Royals’ 40-man roster.

Webb entered 2022 believing he was a couple of good weeks away from the big leagues, but his elbow started barking in his last spring outing. He put off surgery, opting for a platelet-rich-plasma injection that allowed him to return to the mound in June. He never felt right and, after pitching to a 9.99 ERA in the minors, was removed from the Royals’ roster and ultimately released.

Pittsburgh signed Webb the next spring, and he appeared in three spring games before having Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery. The Pirates released Webb in October of that year, mid-rehab, and the Orioles quickly signed him to a unique two-year minor league deal to cover the rest of his rehab and ensure he’d remain with the team for 2025.

The Tommy John rehab was arduous, but Webb kept envisioning being back on a mound, competing with the guy in the batter’s box once more. To replace that, he started competing with himself, trying to be a little better in his exercises each day to ensure he got back to his pre-injury form. Jessie provided a bit of extra motivation last Valentine’s Day when she took the car after he returned home from the Orioles’ facility to get his present — and returned with a gift-wrapped pregnancy test.

Her job in sales was remote at the time, so she was with him in Sarasota for what the couple thought would be a short stint. He wasn’t far from going out to an affiliate in May when he tore his Achilles, requiring another surgery — and an even more gruesome rehab. He was essentially bedridden in a cast for months; instead of doting on his pregnant wife, he reversed roles with her.

“It almost seems like all this stuff is happening to her too,” Webb said. “She gets upset when I’m upset, and when I’m hurt, and all that. But she’s been there the whole way, and really been my main support system, leaning on her when there’s tough times, and she’s been helping me through that. She’s been great.”

Webb returned home to Kansas City in October for Jonah’s birth and came back to Sarasota to finish his Achilles rehab in the middle of January, leaving Jessie and Jonah behind. He had a calendar to keep.

“I wanted to really make sure that I was back and able to compete in the spring and have a full season ahead of me where I can grow,” he said.

He’d faced hitters twice before Jessie and Jonah came to watch him pitch to them on one of the back fields on Feb. 19. Jessie filmed on her phone through the dugout fence, capturing a sight she hadn’t seen in two years.

Jonah, wearing one of his many Orioles outfits, slept the whole time.

“But he was there,” Webb said through a smile. “There are pictures.”

A few days later, they came to watch him face hitters again, this time in the main stadium. Jonah was awake, and he witnessed what turned out to be a milestone: the last day of his father’s rehab. He is simply a baseball player now, like the dozens of others in Orioles camp hoping to make an impression.

The hope was they’d see him pitch in a real game, but Monday’s rainout meant Jessie and Jonah were traveling back home to Kansas City on Thursday when Webb made his spring debut, striking out a pair in a perfect inning.

He’s still trying to get back to his best, but with a fastball that has been comfortably in the mid-90s this camp, plus a slider and changeup, the talent that led the Orioles to sign and stick with him remains. He believes he’s close to his pre-injury form and that the adrenaline of real games will help accelerate his progress.

He has spent the better part of the last year and a half around the Orioles’ staff in some form or fashion, but he realizes many with the organization only know him as a person, not a pitcher.

“I can’t wait to prove to them that they were right and that they made the right call investing in me,” he said. “I can’t wait to show them what I can do.”

His true motivation, though, is closer to his heart. It’s the game itself, one he is fortunate to get to try to play at the highest level. It’s for his wife, who has rolled with and supported him through any number of challenges, all because she wants him to make the big leagues as badly as he does. And now Jonah, too.

Pitchers and hitters use the live at-bats before spring training games start to make sure they’re as ready as can be for the real thing. Last week, the Webb family did the same.

“He’s not going to remember it, but me and my wife are going to remember it,” Webb said. “That’s really what’s special about it — and, hopefully, I get to play this game long enough where he gets to watch and can remember it.”