Delabar on the bubble with Jays
CROWDED BULLPEN: Veteran pitcher is a fine example of perseverance
DUNEDIN, Fla. — It’s not a doomsday clock, because he’ll land on his feet somewhere this season.
But veteran reliever Steve Delabar can’t help but wonder if the clock is ticking on his Blue Jays career.
Delabar, who in January signed a one-year US$835,000 deal for the 2016 season, is out of options, meaning the club has to place him on waivers if they want to send him to the minors. If that happens, another team could pick him up, thereby ending a roller-coaster four-year career with the Jays that included a 2013 All-Star Game appearance.
The 32-year-old right-hander wants to stay in Toronto, and manager John Gibbons would love to have him around. But the competition for spots in the bullpen is fierce.
“Absolutely, I’m planning on being one of those guys (who opens the season with the Jays),” Delabar said. “That’s how I prepare. In my mind, I’m set on being part of this team.”
Delabar on the bubble speaks to the depth of the Blue Jays bullpen, which includes a couple of stud closers in Drew Storen and Roberto Osuna, lefty Brett Cecil and any of the guys vying for the fifth starter’s job right now, including rising star Aaron Sanchez and solid veteran Jesse Chavez.
Delabar spent last season moving back and forth between Toronto and triple-A Buffalo and struggled at times, finishing the year with a 2-0 record, 5.22 ERA, and 30 strikeouts in 29.1 innings for the Jays. But he’s having a solid spring (3.60 ERA in five Grapefruit League games) and is doing his best to force the Jays to keep him around.
“He’s had a good camp,” Gibbons said. “He makes (the Jays) or somebody else has a shot at him. He’s really a tremendous story. He had that injury to his arm and then he burst on to the scene, one of the top relievers in the game, and then he battled some ups and downs.
“It’s not too often you pitch in an All-Star Game and then you get sent down, and that was tough for us to do. But Stevie’s mentally tough, he really is. He’s got a great attitude, he wants to be part of this team, and he also wants to be in the Big Leagues, so he’s really in a perfect spot for himself, individually. So we’ll see.
“What I’ve seen this spring, he’s pitching more,” Gibbons added. “In the past when he had his troubles, he was scattering his fastball a little bit, now he’s back to locating it better. And the split’s good. The split kind of deserted him on and off a little bit the last couple of years. And just judging him from the spring, he kind of looks like the old guy.”
The fact Delabar is in the Major Leagues at all is pretty astounding.
A 29th round (851st overall) draft choice in 2003 by the San Diego Padres, Delabar started his pro career in 2004 and played four seasons in the low minors before being cut by his single-A team, the Fort Wayne TinCaps. The big righty signed to play Independent League ball that year in Brockton, Mass., but his season ended after he fractured his right elbow and underwent surgery that required a steel plate and nine screws to stabilize the elbow.
Following his surgery, Delabar’s career took a fascinating twist. In 2010, he became a substitute teacher and assistant baseball coach at his old high school in Elizabethtown, Ky. While introducing an arm-conditioning program to his players, Delabar’s fastball returned to the 92-97 m.p.h. range.
In 2011, he signed a minor league deal with the Seattle Mariners, finally making it to the Big Leagues as a 28-year-old rookie in 2011.
Now it’s decision time for the Jays. Despite his past performances and his All-Star selection and his solid spring, there are no guarantees Delabar is going to head north with the club for opening day, even though Gibbons has a soft spot for Delabar as they’re both sons of career military men.
Delabar spent five years of his young life growing up on an army base in Baumholder, Germany before the family moved back to their native Kentucky when he was nine. He learned how to pitch largely from his dad, retired U.S. army Sgt. Steve Delabar Sr., a former star high school left-hander.
No matter what happens, Delabar is confident he still has some good years ahead. Delabar has done it all and no one can ever take the honour of being named to the All-Star Game away from him.
“That will never go away. It happened. It’s something I can lean on in the future and say, ‘Yeah, I did go to that,’ ” Delabar said.
“I have to fine-tune some things. I’m a bullpen guy, it’s not like I need five pitches. I need to have two really quality pitches and a supplemental third,” he added. “The goal is to make those two as good as they can be and then have that third one to show because we play teams in our Division 18 times, so you want to give them a different look here and there. But basically you just want to execute your pitches.”
“That’s how I prepare. In my mind, I’m set on being part of this team.”
— Steve Delabar