CLEARWATER, Fla. – Rob Thomson has envisioned the moment.

He’s standing on the pitcher’s mound some night this summer at Citizens Bank Park. He hands Daniel Robert the baseball and says, “Go get ‘em.”

“I get shivers right now just thinking about it,” Thomson said the other day.

He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t.

You might remember Robert. The Phillies picked up the 31-year-old reliever last April in a minor-league trade with the Texas Rangers. He went to Triple-A Lehigh Valley and ended up pitching in 15 games with the big club last season. Not bad for a guy who was a hitter (and a good one) at Auburn University and was drafted as a pitcher after throwing just eight innings his senior year.

Robert became a free-agent in November and earlier this month signed a minor-league contract to return to the Phillies.

It was the place his heart told him he wanted to be.

“I feel like I have a real bond with the Phillies,” he said. “I’m super grateful to them, legitimately the entire staff.

“I owe everything to them.”

Robert was standing in front of his locker in the big-league clubhouse Wednesday when he began to tell his story. It started with a strained flexor tendon in his right arm late last season and a trip to the 60-day injured list, which came with a stint at the team’s injury rehab facility across the way at the minor-league complex.

It was October 31 and Robert was due to throw one of his last bullpen sessions just to make sure his arm was OK before heading home to Alabama. He remembers feeling “super light-headed” as he began to throw, and that’s about it. He collapsed on the mound and was unconscious.

The Phillies employ a large staff of medically trained athletic trainers and they are always on site for every workout, no matter the place. As Robert lay on the ground that day in October, the staff sprang into action. CPR was started. An external defibrillator was used to shock his heart.

In his moment of peril, Daniel Robert was in the right place. Phillies athletic trainers saved his life.

“One-hundred percent,” he said. “I’m very lucky they were around.”

Once stabilized, he was taken by ambulance from the minor-league complex to a local hospital, where he spent three days undergoing tests.

Robert, 6-foot-4 with blue eyes and a friendly smile, was asked if his heart ever stopped. He thought about the question for a second, holding back some emotion.

“Um,” he said with a swallow. “It was at a lethally low level. And a very irregular rhythm.”

Months of testing in the Clearwater area and at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta revealed that Robert did not suffer a heart attack. Doctors called the issue “an unknown cardiovascular event.”

In addition to the Phillies’ medical staff, Robert has an incredible support system, starting with his parents, Greg and Lisa, back home in Birmingham, Ala., and his wife, Jillian.

“She’s an ICU nurse so she’s kind of been my translator with all the doctors,” Robert said. “She was so good keeping family and friends informed. She thought it was honestly a miracle that I was perfectly fine 20 minutes later. It was completely a freak thing. But it was really scary.”

The episode, as one might imagine, has changed Robert’s outlook on life.

“One-hundred percent,” he said. “Pure gratefulness. Baseball can truly end at any point. And more than baseball can end at any point.”

As for his faith in God …

Before that life-changing day in October, Robert was a believer.

Now?

“Stronger than ever,” he said.

Today, Robert has no medical restrictions. He had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) surgically placed under the skin near the side of his chest a month ago and he takes some blood pressure medicine, but that’s it. He underwent genetic testing and rigorous stress testing throughout the winter. He was cleared to play baseball again just a few weeks ago, right before he re-signed with the Phillies.

“They stayed in touch all winter,” Robert said. “They were super accommodating. They knew exactly what was going on and had a plan for me. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to play this season, but if I was able to, I wanted it to be here because of the way the Phillies supported me. All the tests show I’m healthy. The Phillies helped me get to see some of the best doctors in the country.”

Thomson checked in periodically throughout the winter with Robert. So did general manger Preston Mattingly, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and all of the heroes on the team’s medical staff.

Robert is not currently throwing. Because he wasn’t fully cleared to play until early-February, the team is easing him in this spring. He’s on a month-long strength and conditioning program and will begin working from a mound sometime in March. It’s a long season. He’s got a big arm, a strikeout arm, and some big-league time under his belt. He could end up taking the ball from Thomson some night this summer at Citizens Bank Park.

And if it happens, we’ll all get shivers.

“It’s a helluva story,” Thomson said. “So inspiring. I’m happy for him.”