DUNEDIN, Fla. – Back in camp with the Toronto Blue Jays for three days as a guest coach, Vernon Wells is eager and ready to share his knowledge and experiences with the organization that for 14 years he called home.
The long-time centre fielder stood beside manager John Gibbons as the 2015 group gathered around before stretch Tuesday, offering a few words ahead of Tuesday’s Grapefruit League opener.
Speaking with media later, Wells reflected on his time with the Blue Jays, his career, and named Carlos Delgado the teammate to impact him most.
“Carlos took me under his wing,” Wells said. “Well not at first, because I took Jose Cruz’s job and he didn’t really like me for that. He thought I was just some arrogant prospect coming up, then he realized I was just quiet. He was No. 1.”
Wells and Delgado eventually formed one of the most productive 3-4 combos in team history, and it’s the education Wells received from the franchise icon early on that left the biggest impression.
“My first full season I started off hitting behind him, then I ended up hitting in front of him the next few years, but the conversations we’d have about pitchers in preparation, ‘What do you think this guy is going to do,’ helped me take that knowledge to [Alex] Rios after Carlos left,” said Wells.
“Alex,” he laughed, “they’d bring someone out of the bullpen, and I’m like, ‘Alex, what are you thinking right here?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t know, who is this?’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ I was able to translate the information I gathered to him and Carlos was that for me.”
Wells slashed .233/.282/.349 in 130 games for the Yankees in 2013 his last season in the big-leagues, and spent last year working for his charity and is coaching his son’s team of nine and 10 year olds.
Working with the Blue Jays over the next few days will allow him to “expand on some things with these guys, and probably treat them a little differently,” and he’s sure to spend time with Dalton Pompey, the young centre fielder who in some ways is in a similar spot to the one he was in at the century’s start.
The fifth overall pick in the 1997 draft, Wells broke in as a 20-year-old in 1999, played just three big-league games in 2000 and only 30 more in 2001 before settling in as a regular in 2002. Pompey enters this spring with the starting job his to lose and Wells’ early adversity offers a cautionary tale.
“I got to the big leagues when I was 20, I thought I had it all figured out,” said Wells. “Went to spring training that next year and started off well, got sent down and I pouted pretty much all of 2000. And it wasn’t the right way to handle it. Went to spring training in 2001, played really well and still got sent back down. But at that point I knew the numbers, there were too many outfielders. And I handled that a whole lot better.
“So for me, going through the year of struggle was good. I tell kids now, and I speak to these guys like they’re kids because I’m a coach now, it’s not a matter of failure. You’re going to fail. It’s how you respond to that failure that kind of defines you as a person, as an athlete.
“So it’s taking those failures, learning from it and being better because of it. That’s part of the whole process of not only him but even to the Bautista’s. It’s going to happen in this game.”
Wells learned to live with the bad, particularly after he signed a $126-million, seven-year extension following the 2006 season, still the largest contract in franchise history. Though he had some good seasons before he was traded to the Los Angeles Angels in 2011, neither he nor the Blue Jays lived up to expectations.
There were “quite a few” missed opportunities.
“There are quite a few years where our pitching was really good and we couldn’t hit,” said Wells. “There were some years when we could hit and we couldn’t pitch. We couldn’t seem to put it together.
“A big reason is injuries and having the depth to be able to withstand those injuries. You look at some of the teams in my time here, the Yankees and the Red Sox had depth, they had guys who could fill in and they really weren’t losing as much. If you’re able to build that depth and if you’re able to withstand some of that stuff – we just couldn’t do it. There’s 2003, there’s ’05, there’s ’06, even 2002.
“There are quite a few years we put up some numbers on either side of the ball and just couldn’t put all three phases together.”
As for playing, Wells says he still gets pangs but has no regrets about leaving the game behind.
“For me it’s the three hours of a game that you miss, being a kid again,” he explained. “The only reason I played this game is because I loved playing the game, it wasn’t everything that came along with it. Being on the field with your teammates, that’s the fun part. So the three hours last year it was I missed. Everything else I was good with. If I could go the ballpark and play the game for three hours, and then go home? It would be awesome. But that’s not the case.”
He doesn’t even miss the daily team stretch.
“Stretching,” he quips, “was overrated.”
