ANXIOUS MOMENTS
Jays closer Roberto Osuna is fine when he stands on the mound; away from it is a different matter,
KANSAS CITY— The perplexity is written all over Robert Osuna’s downcast face. What is wrong with me? On the field: Not a thing. The 22year-old Blue Jays closer is on an 18-game save streak, the second-longest active streak in the majors. His 19th save of the season, in Wednesday’s 7-5 win over the Rangers, was No. 75 for his career. He’s the youngest player ever to reach that plateau.
Yet something about the pleasant young Mexican is mentally off. And he can’t grasp the why of it. Or how to get over it.
“I feel a little bit anxious, a little bit weird,” Osuna admitted to reporters Saturday, through Spanish interpreter Josue Peley, the team’s bullpen catcher.
Osuna had never made use of a translator, since his first training camp, even when his English was still sketchy. Perhaps he hoped Peley could get the words he spoke in Spanish exactly right. Or Peley merely offered an added buffer in a media scrum that had arranged by the team’s publicist.
“I feel great physically,” said Osuna, who missed half-a-dozen games at the start of the season dealing with a neck issue following the World Baseball Classic. “It’s just more mentally.” But Osuna couldn’t quite articulate what “it” is.
“I really don’t know how to explain it. I just feel anxious. I feel like I’m lost a little bit right now. I’m a little bit lost right now.”
This anxiety settled over him a couple of days earlier.
On Friday night, with Toronto leading 4-1 in the ninth — a game they would ultimately lose when the Royals walked it off 5-4 — Osuna was startlingly unavailable for desperately needed closer duties. In fact, Osuna wasn’t in the bullpen throughout the evening, though he was in the clubhouse before and after.
Asked about his shut-down artist’s curious absence, manager John Gibbons gave a terse answer. “He wasn’t feeling good. That’s all you need to know.”
Gibbons didn’t expand when asked again Saturday, before Osuna spoke to the media. “He wasn’t feeling well.’’ A cold? Upset stomach? “He hasn’t been feeling well.” Would he be available if needed? “Hopefully.” Osuna insists he is physically fine. “This has nothing to do with me being on the field. I feel great out there. It’s just when I’m not on the field that I feel weird and a little bit lost.”
Slouching into his hoodie, sounding as puzzled as he looked, Osuna said he is working with a psychologist to find a way out of the angst. The team is helping.
“I wish I knew how to get out of here and how to get out of this. We’re working on it. We’re trying to find ways to see what can make me feel better. But to be honest I just don’t know.”