Mayza’s comfortable moving up and down in Jays system
TORONTO — There was a hint of irony in Russell Martin’s voice as he greeted Tim Mayza in the Toronto Blue Jays’ clubhouse on Sunday morning.
“Timmy!” the veteran catcher shouted jovially at the young left-hander.
Mayza, 26, had only rejoined Toronto that morning, after fellow reliever Rhiner Cruz hit the disabled list with a groin strain. But you’re forgiven if you’d forgotten he’d left at all; Sunday’s call-up was Mayza’s sixth of the season, his stints in Major
League Baseball lasting anywhere from four to 11 days thus far. His latest promotion came just four days after he was last optioned to the Triple A Buffalo Bisons, one of his shortest stays at Coca-Cola Field this year.
“Where in the world is Mayza?” has been something of a running joke since the beginning of the year, when it took the reliever until April 18 to see his first action of the season. Mayza started the year with the Bisons, whose first three games between April 6 and 8 were postponed. He didn’t feature in Buffalo’s contest on April 9 and was called up to the Jays a day later. It then took eight days for manager John Gibbons and company to get him a game.
Gibbons took the opportunity to have some fun with the situation, jokingly introducing himself to the “new” pitcher.
“It was like 14 days without coming into a game or seeing a hitter and I think on that 14th day, Gibby came up and introduced himself and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m still here,’ ” Mayza said. “That was funny. That was a good joke between us.”
Since then, Mayza has split his time on the mound between the two teams. Heading into play on Tuesday night, Mayza had tossed 12 innings in a Jays’ uniform, allowing five runs, including three homers, off 15 hits. He surrendered three walks while striking out 10 and had a 3.75 ERA.
With Buffalo, for whom the native of Pennsylvania has worked 15 1/3 innings, he has allowed eight runs, seven earned, off 13 hits and given up six walks, striking out 22. His ERA in the minor leagues this year is 4.11.
Mayza is comfortable going up and down, having become “good teammates” with guys on both rosters. In a bullpen like Toronto’s, he is one of the only relievers with options, which makes him vulnerable to the moves.
“I understand that being optioned is part of the business ... so just keeping an open mindset about it and a positive mindset and thinking no matter where
I’m at, whether it’s (in Toronto) or whether it’s Buffalo, it’s still an opportunity to grow as a player and work on things that need to be worked on,” he said this past weekend.
Primarily a fastball and slider guy, Mayza said he’s constantly working on improving his locations, particularly with his “go-to” pitch, the slider.
“I think it’s not quite getting into the places it needs to get to in order to get strikeouts, in order to get swings and misses so to keep improving that and keep having an aggressive mindset going after hitters is something that I’ve come into and continued to try to work on throughout the season.”
He also tries to learn from the veteran’s around him, seeking advice from fellow left-handers like J.A. Happ and Aaron Loup and bouncing ideas off the other relievers around him.
“I think the best thing is just to watch them work,” Mayza said. “Sometimes you don’t even have a conversation but just by seeing how they go about the game and seeing how they go about attacking hitters in certain situation is also a time to learn.”
The goal going forward is to come up to the big leagues and stick around. Until he does, Mayza will likely become more and more familiar with Queen Elizabeth Way, which he travels via car service every time he gets the call and both teams are playing at home. The extended-stay residence where he lives in Buffalo make coming and going easy; he doesn’t have to worry about finding someone to water his plants, he laughs. “That way I’m not worried about leases or going up and down and all that stuff,” he said. “I can only imagine if I had an apartment how hectic that would be.”