Blue Jays reliever Brad Hand has a simple solution to his troubles: ‘Work hard and compete’

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This article was published 29/08/2021 (1518 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DETROIT—Brad Hand doesn’t need to tell you how badly things have gone for him since he was traded to the Blue Jays from Washington before the July 30 deadline. But just in case you think the left-hander might be lacking self-awareness, rest assured he is not.

“This is probably the toughest stretch I’ve ever been through in my career,” the 31-year-old told The Star before the Jays’ game in Detroit on Sunday.

It has been a rough six-week stretch for the former closer, who will be activated off the bereavement list prior to Monday night’s game against Baltimore, and it came out of nowhere.

After leading the major leagues with 16 saves in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Hand signed with Washington to be their closer, and had 19 saves for the struggling Nationals at the all-star break.

He had a dominant two-month run from May 22 to July 20, with a 1.52 ERA and an opponents’ slash line (batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage) of .159/.239/.244. Those are filthy numbers, about as good as you can get.

Lately, though, Hand has been a whole other kind of filthy. In 15 appearances since that stretch of dominance, he has posted an ugly 9.49 ERA. He has given up four home runs in 12 1/3 innings after having given up only four home runs to that point all season. He is 0-5 with three blown saves. His opponents’ slash line is .333/.393/.627 — that 1.020 OPS would rank first in the major leagues among individual hitters.

Basically, Hand has made every batter who has stepped in against him over the past six weeks look like the best hitter in baseball.

What’s gone wrong? The answer is a familiar one: Hand hasn’t had command of his fastball and everything has spiralled from there.

“I feel like everything always works off that,” he said. “If you can’t command your fastball, it makes your off-speed (pitches) not very good. Everything always plays off the fastball. What’s always made me good is getting ahead with the fastball and being able to locate it when I can to make my slider even better.”

But even though the easy answer is just throw the fastball for quality strikes, that’s hardly all there is to it.

“Command is the big thing,” Hand said. “Everybody (is) a lot better when they’re ahead in the count. But I feel like when I am ahead in the count, I’m not able to command a pitch and throw it out of the zone when I need to, maybe leaving too many mistakes when I’m ahead. And when I’m behind in the count, I’ve got to come back into the zone.”

As the numbers show, when he has to come back into the zone, he has been hit hard.

So how does the problem get fixed? Hand doesn’t believe that it’s a matter of a mechanical tweak.

“I feel good,” he insisted. “I’ve looked at stuff mechanically and it matches up from years previous. Mechanically, I feel good and everything’s good, it’s just a matter of time. Start to get a few good (outings) and things start clicking. As a reliever, I’ve always felt that’s how it goes.”

But Hand revealed there’s something going on between the ears, too.

“It’s just maybe a little bit of intent with the pitches,” the left-hander said. “Maybe trying to be too fine with them. I’ve always been just … attack the zone, you don’t have to be perfect with it, you know. I’m always thinking I’m beating the guy to the spot. So, yeah, it’s just … I don’t know.”

Compounding the issue is the fact that Hand was traded at the beginning of his slump, so he doesn’t have coaches who know him well. That doesn’t mean that Pete Walker and Matt Buschmann aren’t doing what they can to help, though.

“They’re trying to figure out me as well,” he said. “It’s difficult going to a new team during the middle of the season, the pitching coach is trying to learn you, just the way the different organizations run everything, it’s a learning curve for both sides. They’ve been great, you know, trying to help me get through this. And I feel strong. I feel good. So it’s just a matter of time before we get this thing rolling.”

When Hand is rolling, he is impressive. In more than five seasons from the start of 2016 until this recent dip, he had a 2.68 ERA with a 1.067 WHIP, striking out 474 batters in 359 innings.

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Hand, who is back with the Jays after spending a couple of days with family in Minnesota after the passing of his grandfather, is ready to get back to work.

“This game is tough,” he said. “So you can’t beat yourself up over it. I’ve had bad days, a lot … You’ve just got to keep grinding through it and hopefully it turns around.”

The veteran definitely has the short memory that’s required to be a successful reliever in the major leagues. “As soon as I leave the ballpark, I forget about it. Good or bad. Just come to the ballpark the next day, work hard and compete.”

After an hour-and-20-minute ride to the airport for a 5:30 a.m. ET flight from Des Moines, Iowa to Detroit on Sunday, Hand threw a bullpen session with Buschmann after the Jays finished batting practice. Though the Jays’ relievers have pitched much better of late, they’re still in the middle of the pack in WHIP over the past month, and only 10th in the league in ERA. The bullpen could still use a Hand, and Brad is working hard to become the pitcher they thought they were getting.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness