Port Dover native Axford is ready to mentor young Jays
Veteran reliever credits Hawkins and Hoffman with helping him earlier in his career
DUNEDIN, FLA. — John Axford doesn’t mind that he’ll likely be the oldest pitcher on the Toronto Blue Jays roster this season.
He’s comfortable in more of a mentorship and leadership role, anyway.
The 35-year-old right-hander, who signed a minor-league deal with Toronto on Saturday, reported to Blue Jays camp that morning, stepping into a Major League Baseball clubhouse that had taken on a much more youthful appearance than the one he left when he was traded in July.
“There’s a lot of new faces in there that I haven’t seen in a while, or I haven’t seen (at all),” Axford said. “Looking at the roster, I’m seeing that I might be the oldest potentially on that list. ... So to be able to talk to some of those young guys, maybe I can instil some of the things I learned when I was a kid.”
Axford, who turns 36 on
April 1, is five months older than 35-year-old lefty Clayton
Richard, who joined Toronto’s starting rotation via an off-season trade, and nearly a year older than new bullpen coach Matt Buschmann.
Axford credited LaTroy Hawkins, who he pitched with in Colorado, and Trevor Hoffman, his former teammate in Milwaukee, as veterans that he looked up to earlier in his own career. “You get to see their work ethic, you get to see their attitude day to day, you get to see what they do to create the atmosphere in the bullpen that was beneficial and positive for you to come to the field every day,” he said. “So I think that was one of the biggest things for me, creating that atmosphere that guys are enjoying and bringing positivity to the field and the bullpen.”
Axford, a native of Port Dover, also signed a minor league deal late with Toronto last year — just before camp opened — and went 4-1 with a 4.41 earned-run average in 45 games with the Blue Jays before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 31.
He didn’t do very well in the five appearances he made with the Dodgers over the last two months of the season — a stint that also saw him fracture his fibula when he was hit by a comebacker — allowing eight runs (seven earned) over 3 2/3 innings.
Axford owns a career record of 38-34 with a 3.87 ERA and 144 saves in 543 games for eight teams (2009-2018).
The towering right-hander said he had some offers from other teams, but he wanted to return to Toronto so he could live at home in Burlington and spend time with his two sons, JB and Jameson, like he did last year.
Axford spoke with Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins at the Baseball Canada banquet last month in Toronto, letting them know how much he wanted to come back.
“For me, it’s home,” he said. “Spending as much time as I did with family and friends and my kids was perfect and ideal and it was really a dream last year. So I wanted to get back in that situation.”