Bassitt thought his career was almost over
Now he’s the A’s Opening Day starter
Chris Bassitt smiled when manager Bob Melvin told him he’d be the Oakland A’s Opening Day starter this year. But it wasn’t just the distinguished honor that drew a grin.
Bassitt is set to join an exclusive club of
32 pitchers who have thrown the
A’s first pitch of the season, along with the likes of
Catfish Hunter,
Dave Stewart, Tim Hudson, Barry Zito,
Sonny Gray and
Blue Moon Odom.
That’s all fine and well. He will start on April 1 against the Houston Astros. But the 32-yearold pitcher says he is just happy to make a big league team.
“Making a squad alone is very hard to do. I don’t take that for granted,” Bassitt said in a call with reporters after he heard the news. “Opening day is obviously cool. But it’s more so making the team and having the opportunity to play baseball.”
Playing in big league games is something Bassitt doesn’t take for granted. In his first years
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Last year, back when things were normal, we talked about how you came to terms with having an undefined role as a pitcher. Wanting to be a starter without a clear path there in Oakland. Can you explain what it was like for you to come to terms with the undefined role and how you feel now that you have a defined role?
As crazy as it is, I feel like my role isn’t defined. I know I’m starting this year, but I can do both. It’s whatever the team needs, and right now the team needs a starter. So that’s been pretty dang easy for me.
I give all the credit to
BoMel (Bob Melvin) and Emo (Scott Emerson) because they let me fight it a little bit. Don’t get me wrong, we had our bumps in the road to get where we are. But allowing me to mature in the baseball sense and personal sense, to get to where I’m at today. It definitely wasn’t easy. If you ask BoMel and them, they’d say this kid is
a headache. But I’m very thankful for BoMel and Emo and the front office for getting me where I’m at.
Q: What were those bumps in the road?
A: the At front the time office I thought didn’t think I was good enough to do either. That’s what I thought. They weren’t sure if I was good enough to be a starter so they were keeping the door open to be a reliever. I never did relieving with them, so I thought I am wastin g my time relieving with you because I am never relieving. I just felt like I was in limbo and they didn’t know what they wanted to do with me. I felt like I wasn’t good enough. That’s more of a personal problem that I always had. Me questioning and being afraid of failure. Everyone has their own personal demons, and that’s one of mine.
Q: Did you eliminate the demons and did that help you get to where you’re at now?
A: to I guide think them I’ve learned in the right direction and not make them a negative, but a positive. I still have extreme anxiety of failure. I always hear the thing like, someone got a roll or got paid so now he’s comfortable. I don’t know if there is something in this game that can make me comfortable with the though of
having a bad year or losing a game. I don’t know what it would take for me to get rid of those feelings, and I’m sure as heck not close yet. I don’t think I’m alone in that. I think there are a lot of people that have an extreme fear of failing in this game and looking bad. It’s hard to look good when you don’t know your role. That’s what I was fighting so much for in the past.
Q
: That’s a strange battle to have in your head when you’re competing on a stage. How do you make the leap?
A
: You have anxiety every single day. About the next start, how last year went, how last year ended. It’s more so, if you win a game, that’s good and great. I can sleep well at night. But if you lose,
you don’t sleep at night. It’s about how you handle failure. Everyone is different. We’re all extreme competitors at this level, and failing isn’t easy. So how do you let go of the failure to get to the next game? That’s something I’ve learned to simplify, but don’t get me wrong I think about it like crazy. Q
: Going back to the World Series, people were shocked to see Blake Snell pulled from Game 6. Over the last few years, bullpens have been used differently and have become a central part of the story of how pitching roles are changing. What was your reaction to Snell being pulled and how roles are changing?
A
: When I came up, it was: You’re going six innings no matter what. You give up four in the first, you get to six innings somehow. That’s how I came up with the White Sox, they were huge on starters eating innings. It was old school mentality of, this is my game, let me go as far as I can go. Obviously baseball has transitioned to bullpens almost eating as many innings as starters, which is crazy to me. When it comes to Blake Snell being pulled, when you have a guy with stuff that caliber, you want him in as long as you can. If I’m a teammate, I want him to have the ball.