Reliever knows value of others’ viewpoints
DUNEDIN, FLA.— The goal of Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin every spring is to discover as much as he can about his new pitchers — what they throw, when they like to throw it. So it was not unusual when, following left-hander Craig Breslow’s first session of live hitting, the two met halfway to the mound, shook hands and, for the next five minutes, parsed Breslow’s stuff. It’s in Martin’s DNA.
“Kind of just bouncing ideas back and forth,” Martin explained later. “Getting an understanding of what he’s trying to accomplish. We talked about what he likes to do vs. lefties, what he’s trying to accomplish when he’s facing righties. What are the things that he’s trying to work on. We talked about his arm slot. He’s changed that a little bit. Just back and forth.”
Breslow is a 37-year-old non-roster reliever who is attempting to reinvent himself as a left-handed specialist. Two winters ago, he low- ered his arm slot from straight over the top. After splitting his 2017 season between Minnesota and Cleveland, the Yale grad lowered his arm slot once again this winter. Even at his advanced baseball age, he appreciated the extra input from Martin.
“He comes with a pretty significant track record,” Breslow said. “I don’t doubt that, physically, he’s going to be able to catch the pitches, but I think it could be helpful to talk about what the approaches would be to righties, (to) lefties, how we want to attack them.”
Breslow wants to know Martin’s opinion of his stuff and how he would call a game based on that. “I think, oftentimes, how I would evaluate the quality of the pitches that I’m making is very different than how either a hitter, a catcher or a talent evaluator might.”
At just under six feet, Breslow is reminiscent of former big-leaguer Bob McClure, another lefty who made adjustments later in his career to earn a role as an effective specialist against lefty swingers.
“As an undersized left-handed reliever, I have to be able to get left-handed hitters out,” Breslow said, matter-of-factly. “There’s not a huge market for a left-handed reliever with reversible platoons because there are plenty of righthanded pitchers getting right-handed hitters out.
“That being said, it only adds to your value and adds to your versatility if you can also face righthanded hitters. I think my founda- tion is going to need to be consistently getting left-handed hitters out. There’s a role for that, there’s value in that. If you can save a pitching change by being able to get out a righty sandwiched between two lefties, being able to stay in there against switch-hitters, I think that only adds to your value.”
The Connecticut native has held opposing lefties to a .248 average and .688 OPS in his career. Once he lowered his arm slot last year, those numbers improved to .214 average and .588, though his effectiveness against right-handed hitters was lessened.
“As a traditional over-the-top pitcher, I was always a four-seam fastball (and) changeup against righties, and kind of a cutter that turned into a little bit of a slider against lefties, kind of short, hard movement,” Breslow said.
“From a lower slot I’ve got more sink and run on my sinker and more sweep on my breaking ball. The breaking ball has always been my third- to fourth-best pitch. But the feedback that I’m getting from Russ, from hitters and from different coaches, is that the slider is a legitimate weapon now. It’s got to be something I’m comfortable with when I go out there to say, ‘Hey, you know what? I’m a new pitcher now. I’ve got new weapons. I have to use them as they’re objectively viewed, not as I thought based on the pitcher I was five years ago.”
Martin, whose teams have gone to the playoffs nine times in his 12 seasons, has never kept a notebook of the stuff he learns from his pitchers. He believes when he sees a teammate on the mound that all the stored info comes back to him and it makes the process work. The key is that they be on the same page.
“The (veterans) tend to know themselves better,” Martin said. “The more you play the game, the more you understand how much of a game of adjustments it is. The older the player, the more adjustments he has probably made throughout his career. But you’re always trying to have an edge, always trying to do something to separate yourself, or just kind of get a little bit better. Those are the things that you talk about.”
Breslow is going to have to rely on the coaches and Martin if he is going to displace one of the incumbent left-handers in the Jays bullpen and earn a spot. He will likely pitch late in spring games, when opposing minor-leaguers abound and when you can’t dictate lefty-lefty matchups.
“It’s good to have feedback from a guy (Martin) that has done this for 10 years, or however long it’s been,” Breslow said. “He’s seen what works in this division. He’s seen the more prevalent hitters in the league.
“I also do the same thing (talking) with (Jays) hitters. ‘You’re seeing this new look from me for the first time. What would you look to do off me? What makes you uncomfortable? What’s the pitch you see the best.’ ”