TRYING TO SET BAR HIGHER AMONG STAFF
Padres try to create that winning culture with their pitchers
Corey Kluber had already won the first of two Cy Young Awards when Mike Clevinger finally cracked Cleveland’s rotation in May 2016. Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar were already in the clubhouse. Shane Bieber arrived two years later, followed by Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale. This year it’s Triston McKenzie’s turn to fall in line.
That’s how you establish culture.
“You bring all that together,” Clevinger said as he settled into his first camp with the Padres, “… (and) that mesh is going to create even better guys coming behind us and just create that culture of winning, that same culture … in Cleveland when I came up and these starting pitchers set the bar. Five innings and 10 strikeouts was nothing to them. It wasn’t going to be a big deal if you did it. Once you set that bar high and higher, you start to change the culture and other guys are going to start reaching for that extra gear and reaching for more.”
Those other guys in San Diego are starting off in a pretty good spot.
MacKenzie Gore has been heralded as one of the game’s top pitching prospects since the Padres made him the No. 3 overall pick in the country in 2017. Ryan Weathers, the lefthander selected in the first round the following year, beat Gore to the majors last October. Another lefthander who signed for $11 million (Adrian Morejon) has been flirting with a regular gig in San Diego for the last two years. Even Dinelson Lamet, Chris Paddack and Joe Musgrove probably could stand to learn a thing or two, as can Reggie Lawson and other Padres pitching prospects as they attempt to carve out roles in the coming years.
Their education this spring, in particular, has been upgraded to a master class after General Manager A.J. Preller assembled arguably San Diego’s most accomplished staff since Greg Maddux joined forces with Jake Peavy, David Wells and Chris Young in 2007.
The 30-year-old Clevinger has a 2.96 ERA since the start of 2017 that ranks behind only Jacob deGrom (2.52), Clayton Kershaw (2.64), Hyun-Jin Ryu (2.71), Max Scherzer (2.75), Justin Verlander (2.82) and Kluber (2.83). Blake Snell won a Cy Young before his 26th birthday and the 34year-old Yu Darvish won 93 games in Japan before finishing second twice in NL Cy Young voting and becoming a four-time All-Star.
Put quite simply, there’s a teacher around every corner this spring.
A pretty good one, too.
“I got to talk to Yu Darvish a pretty good bit and just worked on my slider,” Weathers said. “Because obviously he spins the ball better than any pitcher in the game and has like 17 pitches. Getting to talk to him through his translator and just getting to talk to him in general, that’s been awesome for me, knowing that he’s a proven big-leaguer that’s a Cy Young candidate every year going into it. He’s been really cool to talk to a bunch.”
Added Gore: “It’s just being around all the guys on staff. It’s not like we talk to one guy. We’re a team. We talk to each other all the time. I’ve learned a lot from everybody so far and I’m going to keep doing that.”
While Morejon — with four runs allowed in 102⁄3 Cactus League innings — seems to have pulled ahead in the race for the fifth rotation spot, all three young left-handers have showed well at times this spring. Gore has been unscored upon in two of his four spring appearances and Weathers struck out six batters over three innings against the Dodgers on Saturday in continuing to impress in his first big-league spring training.
Darvish is among those who’ve noticed their strides, giving the trio a nod as “cute, in a sense” in “giving everything they have” this spring. His role in that endeavor is to make sure the youngsters feel at ease in approaching the veterans about anything.
“I’m not thinking so much about giving them advice,” Darvish said through interpreter Shingo Horie. “I’m more thinking about trying to give them an environment where they feel comfortable. I think, someone like myself and maybe Blake Snell, us veterans should try to provide an environment that these young players feel comfortable in.”
Like Clevinger, Snell certainly felt comfortable as he got settled into Tampa Bay, leaning on the likes of David Price, Chris Archer, Nathan Eovaldi, Drew Smyly, Alex
Cobb and Jake Odorizzi. Those relationships, of course, only branched out to pitching talk after the Rays’ veterans made sure to tear down any and all walls.
Snell’s expectation is to pay it forward in San Diego.
“I’ll be able to help a lot of these guys,” Snell said. “But it’s time. You’ve got to be able to talk to them, be their friend. When they’re struggling, that’s when they’ll come up to you or I’ll go to them and we’ll talk.”
That’s already started in earnest with Morejon, who’s been seen at Snell’s hip as they walk between the back fields between drills in Peoria. In this case it was Snell who first began waving over the 22-year-old Cuban for chats.
“I know they’re veterans, but they really want to help and they’ve helped a lot,” Morejon said through interpreter David Longley. “… I talk more to Snell and we’re always talking slider, curveball … talking about all our breaking pitches together.”
Clevinger has been equally involved as he works through a Tommy John rehab that will bar him from a big-league mound until 2022. His role as a mentor, however, began after the Padres traded for him last fall when he watched Gore’s side sessions at Petco Park as he worked out the kinks in his delivery. The education will continue long after Gore and the rest of the youngsters pack their bags for San Diego.
It has to for the culture to really take root.
“It’s the little things, like a guy being able to pick your signs at second base,” Clevinger said. “You’d be surprised how many guys go through a season where there’s five teams that know what you’re throwing every time because of their glove positioning. Little things like that and you can fast forward and just get better. … Setting up guys, going through a lineup three times, now he’s going to have a bunch of guys that have done it and know how to navigate a lineup.
“I think that will bolster him to get even better.”