Phoenix, Ariz. – Almost nothing went right for Colorado Rockies relief pitcher Adam Ottavino in 2017.
Losing all but 10 innings of 2015, and all but 27 innings in 2016, to Tommy John surgery, he was anxious to retake the field and looked, at first, as though he was going to pick up right where he left off.
Beginning the year as a set-up man who many believe should have been the closer, he led MLB in Holds through the first month-and-a-half of the season. But then it all went south, and he was never able to fully recover.
He saw his walk rate steadily climb way up to 6.58/9, nearly double his career average, making each of his appearances a question of which version of Ottavino we were going to see.
His 10.63 K/9 rate showed that his ridiculous slider and 96-mph fastball were still incredibly tough for opposing hitters to square up. When he was on, he was still the pitcher who once looked like a shoe-in to become one of the best relievers in Rockies history. He just wasn’t on often enough.
He was on Thursday, though.
Ottavino made his 2018 debut on Opening Day by striking out one of the best hitters in the game, Paul Goldschmidt, on three pitches. And he got him looking.
“I’ve faced him a lot,” he told BSN Denver after the game. “He’s done well against me, I’ve done well against him. Just trying to throw strikes and get ahead. I was able to do that and make a good pitch that he wasn’t looking for. It was a good start.”
But he wasn’t done.
Ottavino ended up striking out the side, getting power hitters Jake Lamb and Alex Avila around a walk to former-Rockie Daniel Descalso. Naturally, he would have preferred to avoid the free pass, but his pitches were sharp and well located. And these are the kinds of results that usually come for him when that’s the case.
He admitted, though, that his struggles of a year ago were far more mental than physical.
“Honestly, my approach is, you talk about focus, I feel like I lacked that a lot last season,” he says. “And this year, that’s something I’ve been training all offseason and this spring. Just focusing for my 15 minutes or whatever it is out there as well as I can. Building up that muscle.”
It’s phenomenally difficult for any normal human being to understand what the life of a relief pitcher is like. Your entire day comes down to 15 minutes when all eyes are on you. Then, regardless of results, you need to immediately start thinking about the next appearance, which may very well be the next day.
Additionally, you have to keep yourself fresh which makes it difficult to get in extra time to work on your pitches and mechanics. The more work you put in to fix issues, the harder it is to perform at peak level come game time.
You can only go so hard in practice when you might need to pitch in the game tonight. And if not that game, you almost certainly will be called upon the following one. Especially in Colorado.
It may sound easy to the laymen to give 100 percent focus for 15 minutes out of your day, but the human body and mind are simply not well conditioned for that. Unless you really force it
“Today, I felt like I was really focused on the glove and what I wanted to throw,” says Ottavino. “And I think that’s when I’m at my best, when I’m mentally locked in.”
Make no mistake, a locked-in Ottavino provides the Colorado Rockies with a downright silly bullpen. Wade Davis will take the majority of save opportunities barring a catastrophe, and Jake McGee and Bryan Shaw have earned their presumed roles at the back of the ‘pen.
And we saw what Chris Rusin is capable of (still) when he wriggled out of a bases-loaded, nobody out jam in the fifth in his own impressive season debut. But Adam Ottavino, at his best, is as good as any of them.
