At the Letters: The new-look Blue Jays are emerging
In this episode, Arden Zwelling and Ben Nicholson-Smith take a look at new Jays such as Will Wagner, put Vlad Guerrero Jr.’s season in perspective and discuss next steps for veteran pitchers.
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Kevin Pillar describes his 2024 season like this: “Unorthodox. A little bit crazy.”
No debate there for the 35-year-old outfielder who wondered if his playing days were over after twice being cut by the dreadful Chicago White Sox only to find his way to the Los Angeles Angels, where he reached 10 years of service and has been so rejuvenated that another year is no longer out of the question.
Back in July, when he hit the meaningful decade milestone, Pillar told USA Today’s Bob Nightengale that he was “98 per cent sure,” he would retire at season’s end.
Now, even as he acknowledged that “there are days I still feel like it might be” the case, he adds that “I’m definitely more open to continuing this journey than I was maybe two or three months ago.”
“It’s changed since I’ve been here, just watching my kids, they’re still enjoying watching me play, me finding some success, being part of a good organization that still sees a lot of value in me and what I do on the field, what I do in the clubhouse,” he said while sitting in the Angels dugout this week. “It’s inspiring me to at least consider playing another year. But it’s not just my decision, it will be a conversation with (wife) Amanda and my two kids.”
That it’s even gotten to this point is another example of Pillar’s continued resilience.
Last year, he enjoyed a solid season as a fourth outfielder and bat off the bench in Atlanta, posting a .664 OPS with nine homers and 32 RBIs in 206 plate appearances over 81 games, and he had hoped to return there. But the club made some changes, Pillar ended up signing a minor-league deal with the White Sox in February, was released March 23, re-signed a major-league deal the next day, was designated for assignment a month later and debated whether it was the end. Then, friend and former Toronto Blue Jays teammate Ryan Goins, a first-year infield coach with the Angels, reached out to see what he was thinking.
“Are you interested in coming?” he asked.
“And I was like, ‘Yes, say no more,’” said Pillar, whose major league career started in Toronto in 2013. He was traded to San Francisco in April 2019.
General manager Perry Minasian and fellow Angels executives David Haynes and Brian Parker all had history with Pillar in Toronto, as did trainer Mike Frostad, and a deal was quickly reached. In 213 plate appearances over 63 games, he’s hit .275/.315/.435 with six homers and 36 RBIs while providing his usual stellar defence in the field.
On a young Angels team trying to recover from Shohei Ohtani’s departure and Mike Trout’s perennial injury woes, he’s also served as someone his teammates can lean on. Combined with playing on a field he used to regularly visit during his college days at California State University, Dominguez Hills, the entire experience “has been pretty special.”
All of which is making the retirement decision even harder.
He’s already given lots of thought to what’s next — he has some real-estate investments and he’s curious how well he’d do in business full-time; he’s intrigued by applying his experience in a baseball front office; he can see himself doing some broadcasting — but he’s not ready to close one door to open another.
“When I say it’s over, it’s over, there’s no coming back. I’m not getting any younger. The game’s not getting easier,” said Pillar. “I can’t afford to say I don’t want to play and then a couple months or a year later, I want to come back. So, it’s going to be a tough decision.”
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GAUSMAN GRINDS: While breaking down his outing after a 6-1 win over the Angels this week, Kevin Gausman didn’t sound like someone who’d just thrown seven shutout innings. The Blue Jays ace felt he’d “pitched better in plenty of other starts,” said he “missed my spot a lot tonight and got away with it” and added “that’s true from my last start as well.”
In that way, process hasn’t always equalled outcome in this trying season for the 33-year-old, who 24 starts in says the only part of his game that feels stable is “the delivery a little bit.”
“To be honest, nothing is really kind of locked in right now,” he added. “But we’re grinding and I feel like we’re getting close.”
The results suggest as much, as in his last seven starts, he’s pitched to a 3.17 ERA over 48.1 innings, including his second complete game of the season in a 7-3 victory against Texas on July 27.
At the same time, ever since shoulder fatigue truncated his spring, he’s been chasing steady footing, fighting fluctuating velocity and experimenting with more slider usage early on, and more sinker usage now.
Understandably, he describes this year as “a little bit of a grind — I mean a lot of a bit of a grind, more mentally, than physically.”
“It’s been weird for me as of late,” Gausman continued. “The back part of my career has been pretty good. This year has been tough, trying to find consistency. I am a perfectionist, so the work is there, I’m doing everything I can to right the ship. I feel like I’ve gone in a couple of different directions this year that maybe weren’t right, but that’s part of living and learning. In your career, you’re going to go through ebbs and flows. I’ve never been 33 before. Every year is different.”
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GREAT GUERRERO: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. snapped right back into damage mode after the Oakland Athletics ended his 22-game hit streak Sunday, going 6-for-14 with two homers, two doubles and four RBIs in a three-game sweep of the Angels.
In 25 games since the All-Star break, he’s batting .457/.523/.957 with 11 homers, 12 doubles and a triple in 109 plate appearances, with 25 RBIs and 25 runs scored for good measure.
Most impressive is the way he’s simply waiting out opposing pitchers, even as teams have tried to isolate and pitch around him.
That’s why he credits his consistency to “executing the plan.”
“Executing the plan is the key to all the success that I have right now,” he continued through interpreter Hector Lebron. “No matter if I strike out, if I get a base hit, hit a homer, I continue to have the same plan every at-bat. Obviously, good things are happening right now. But the key is there. If I keep executing my plan every single at-bat, I’m going to be all right.”
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