Tepera envisions a starting role
Key reliever almost not drafted because he had no cell service in Kelowna
In August of 2015, the Blue Jays claimed Rajai Davis off waivers from the Detroit Tigers in the hopes obtaining the speedy outfielder for their playoff run.
The Jays had two days to work out a trade but Detroit insisted on right-handed pitcher Ryan Tepera going the other way. Tepera, however, was a player the Jays did not want to give up, despite the fact that they really wanted Davis to be a right-handed platoon player. But the deal fell through. Two years later and Tepera, one of the most dependable performers in the Jays’ bullpen now, had no idea of what went down that August. But he’s happy to still be with Toronto.
Tepera, 29, has bounced up and down between Triple A Buffalo the last two seasons but more and more, he has proven to be a late-inning calibre reliever with a 95 MPH fastball, as well as a good cutter and sinker. This season Tepera is locating the ball well and has thrown 21 innings without allowing a home run and has a 37.5 per cent strikeout rate against the heart of the opposing team’s order, ranking him ninth of 116 qualified relievers. He has a 3.13 ERA in 31.2 innings.
The Houston native has said often that he would love the chance to be a regular late-inning guy but this week he took that even further suggesting he wouldn’t mind switching to a starting role next year, which actually makes some sense for the Jays.
Both Marco Estrada and Francisco Liriano are free agents after this season and there are no guarantees either will be back. J.A. Happ is signed through 2018 but if the Jays embark on a rebuild, the big lefty might bring some long-range quality back in a trade. Almost certainly, RHP Joe Biagini will be a fulltime starter next season, but the Jays will have one or two spots to fill in the rotation. Tepera, who started right into his freshman year at Sam Houston University in Huntsville, Texas, said he’d be more than happy to stretch out in spring training and become another option for the rotation.
“I talked about it with (pitching coach) Pete (Walker) and Gibby (manager John Gibbons) a little bit when we had a lot of starters go down earlier in the season,” said Tepera. “Now that I know myself a little better mechanically-wise, pitching-wise, I think I could go back to starting. And they think so too.
“It would probably be something we’d have to work on next year in spring training, and I would have to develop the change-up a little better.”
Tepera always thought his future as a pro would be as a starter but he ran into some roadblocks during his freshman year at Sam Houston State University in the form of two serious staph infections, the first in his right foot just before the start of the season and another in his right knee.
“I struggled,” Tepera said. “I just didn’t throw well. I was a Friday night starter for years and I still was a starter up until that point, then I got hurt (again) and they moved me to the bullpen to be a closer because I missed some time.
“I didn’t have a good year, my numbers weren’t good. I pitched terrible. Scouts had stopped calling me. It was the very end of the (2009) season, but we were playing DBU (Dallas Baptist), my coach told me before hand that there was going to be a Blue Jays scout there and that I was going to throw an inning for sure.”
In 2009, he was driving to Kelowna, B.C. to play summer ball when he got drafted by the Jays in the 19th round.
“The Blue Jays called and said, ‘We’re thinking of taking you, in so and so round, for this much, would you sign?’ And I said, ‘Hell yeah. Let’s do it.’ ” said Tepera. “I was just excited to get drafted.”
The problem was, he didn’t have cellphone service in Kelowna.
“I wasn’t able to talk to the Blue Jays and they didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “Finally one of the Jays scouts got hold of my manager at Sam Houston and said, ‘What’s the deal with Tepera? We need to know what’s going on. It’s been 2-3 weeks.’ Finally they got a hold of me. It was kind of a crazy deal, but it all worked out.”