Reluctant reliever is All-Star starter
Bassitt’s up-and-down career is at its zenith in ASG squad nod
Chris Bassitt will make his first career All-Star appearance tonight representing the A’s in Denver. During his seven-year tenure in Oakland, the A’s ace transformed from a reluctant swing-man to one of baseball’s most effective pitchers. In a way, that fear of falling back into the unknown is what drives him.
“A lot has been documented where he’s come from in his career to where he is now.” manager Bob Melvin said recently. “He was pretty emotional after his first shutout, leading the way as a starter for the last year and a half. This culminates all that hard work and perseverance. To make an AllStar team is a special day. We recognize that and celebrated it in there.”
Melvin and pitching coach Scott Emerson were crucial in helping Bassitt stay on course when the pitcher couldn’t come to terms with an undefined role when he first came to Oakland in 2015. A starter coming up with the Chicago White Sox, Bassitt didn’t know how to cope when his new team informed him he may need to pitch out of the bullpen.
“At the time I thought the front office didn’t think I was good enough to do either,” Bassitt said. “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 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.”
But Melvin and Emerson let Bassitt fight back a little
while insisting he embrace any opportunity to help the team. All Bassitt, he realized, could do was go for the ride.
After undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2016, Bassitt questioned if he would ever return. He bounced between the minor leagues and the big league team, making a handful of starts between the 2018 and 2019 seasons. In 2020, Jesús Luzardo and A.J. Puk were expected to fill the open rotation spots and Bassitt relegated to a swingman role. But injuries lofted Bassitt into the rotation, a job he made sure stuck. Since then, he’s put together a
2.93 ERA over 30 starts and cemented himself not only as the team ace, but clubhouse leader.
This year, his 3.28 ERA ranks eighth in the American League, an even more impressive number given his 118 total innings pitched leads the league. In an era where starting pitching workhorses are falling out of style, Bassitt has carried a load.
What keeps the 32-yearold improving is a mentality that he always has something to prove. In a way, he lets that fear of failure drive him.
“You have anxiety every single day,” Bassitt said
when he was named the A’s Opening Day starter last March. “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.”
When the All-Star break approaches, the A’s quietly
lament that they are often swept under the rug, on the wrong side of an East Coast bias. Bassitt and Olson made the cut, but they may argue Sean Manaea -who’s 3.19 ERA ranks sixth in the American League -Mark Canha and Ramón Laureano don’t get the recognition they deserve.
Bassitt downplayed his All-Star candidacy, saying “shame on me” if he catches himself hoping for an AllStar bid over gunning for the Houston Astros for American League West’s top spot. Still, Bassitt seemed a clear choice for teammates who let those thoughts in.
“It’s awesome. He should
have been an All-Star from the start, in my opinion,” fellow All-Star Matt Olson said. “He’s been pretty dominant, especially the last few years. He didn’t have a defined role from the second he came up. He was up and down a few times — maybe in the rotation or the bullpen. He stuck to his guns and worked his ass off and finds himself at the top of our rotation. A guy that, when he’s on the mound, we want him to have the ball and we’re not surprised any time he goes nine innings. He’s a true competitor and I can’t say enough about how confident we are when he has the ball.”