A Return Worth Visualizing for UAB’s Kok

By Steve Irvine

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA - March 4, 2026

Visualization is part of Caden Kok’s preparation before he pitches in a baseball game. He thinks about the baseball in his hand and the opposing batter at the plate. He thinks about situations and strategies. He thinks about the sights and smells of being on the field.

Most of all, at least these days, the UAB junior right-hander, thinks about just having the opportunity to climb back up on the mound.

There is no timetable set for Kok’s next pitching assignment. Grudgingly, he has accepted that it probably won’t be this season. He’s content with being a supportive teammate while dealing with other matters. When the chance to pitch again does come, though, he will face something new. It will be the first time he’s pitched as a cancer survivor.

“I've been trying to visualize that,” said Kok, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound Winter Haven, Fla. native. “That’s one of the biggest things I like to do. I used to do it a lot but I've kind of gotten away from it just because of everything that's going on. But I've definitely been doing that at night, laying in bed just thinking about it, listening to what my walkout song would have been for this year and being on the mound. It's definitely something I'm looking forward to.”

It was a second chance of sorts when Kok arrived at UAB. His college career began at Michigan State in 2021 but he was unable to play in each of the two years he was there because of injuries. He spent two seasons at St. Johns River State College in Lakeside, Fla., helping his team to the World Series in his first season and leading them in saves the next. Kok originally chose South Florida as his return to Division I baseball but changed his mind and selected UAB after reopening his recruiting.

Kok arrived with high expectations but hurt his back in early weightroom workouts.

“I'd been working out doing everything, been throwing and I felt fine,” Kok said. “Then one day we were working out and I was squatting and I went down and my back kind of popped. I kind of like lost my breath and it just felt really odd. Like it did not feel good at all. It was the first week we were here so I didn't want to sit out. I kept throwing, kept doing everything, but everything was down, my (velocity) was down. It was still hurting but it wasn't like debilitating. I was still able to play and throw and it eventually got to the point, I think in about six weeks in, that I was like ‘Alright I need to go see the doctor.’”

His x-ray was clean of breaks or fractures but the doctor was concerned about the location of the pain, so he ordered a MRI.

“He showed up to the field that day and I kind of knew something was up,” Kok said. “He was like, ‘You might want to call your parents, I’ve got some bad news.’ I was like man, what could he possibly be talking about? He said he didn't want to say for sure what it is but it looks like it could be, what's the word, metastasized. That basically just means something like cancer cells are spread through it. I’m thinking ‘How is that possible?’”

It could be a bad bone or a fracture that they hadn’t spotted, Kok was told, but they wouldn’t be certain until after further tests. The official diagnosis, following the tests, was Diffuse Large B cell lymphoma, which is a type of non-Hodgkins cancer.

“It’s pretty rare but it's super curable,” Kok said. “They told me that, so I was pretty confident that it was gonna go away.”

He had his port put in on Dec. 5 and his first round of chemotherapy began on Dec. 10. His first two cycles of chemo went relatively smoothly, Kok said, but he had trouble with his third cycle. However, the news he received before his third cycle began made it easier to handle.

“Luckily that's when they told me that I didn't have cancer anymore,” Kok said. “They told me that this is your last one no matter what you'll be done you don't have to do a fourth one. Like, ‘You’re done, it’s gone.’ I thanked God.”

In a span of about 45 days, Kok went from hearing the final diagnosis to hearing that he is cancer free.

Now, he waits until he’s cleared to return to baseball. His darkest days, he said, came when he thought he’d never play baseball again. Thus far, all he’s been cleared to do physically, Kok said, is brisk walks. He still is an important part of the team, coming to practices and games. He can’t play right now, but he can still shut his eyes and see himself on the mound at UAB, which is a blessing.

“I wasn't supposed to be here really and then last minute I decided not to go to USF,” Kok said. “I got released and then we started looking around for schools. I had a couple schools reach out and a couple offers and I picked UAB. I thought it would be the best place for me. Then to get here, for this to happen and to have this be one of the top cancer research places and one of the top medical facilities in the country. It’s like what are the odds for that happen?   There's nothing anybody else can say but there’s a reason I'm here. We knew that from the start, as soon as the diagnosis happened, that basically the best thing that happened to me is being at UAB.”