John Axford learned a lot in 2013, with perhaps no lesson greater than the one he received from the St. Louis Cardinals on his first day with the organization.
Following a shaky start to the season in which he lost his closer’s job with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Hamilton, ON native was shipped to division rival St. Louis on Aug. 30. But before he threw a pitch for his new club, the Cardinals coaching staff sat Axford down in an office and delivered some jarring news.
“I was told, ‘hey, we’ve been scouting you for five years, we have all your reports and just so you know, we have your pitches.’” Axford recalled Saturday in Toronto prior to Baseball Canada’s annual awards dinner.
And in the event the 30-year-old Axford didn’t believe what he was hearing, the Cardinals staff proceeded to show him videos from the 2011, ’12 and ’13 seasons, evidence of him tipping his pitches in the manner with which they had just described.
“I was thrown back a little bit and they asked me, ‘we don’t know how that makes you feel? In all honesty, I said I was fine with it, I figured that’s what you tried to do, but I’m more shocked in the sense that that’s the first thing you told me–you have my pitches. They said they could correct it with one little adjustment.”
So over the next few weeks Axford and the Cardinals went to work.
“It’s such a small detail you wouldn’t really think to focus in on, but it’s something that they did, and when you think about and look at it, it’s very easy to pick up as a hitter I guess,” said Axford.
With the change now in place, Axford had a strong finish to what up until that point had been a disappointing 2013. Over the first five months of the season while with the Brewers, Axford posted a 4.37 ERA with 57 strikeouts, 62 hits and 23 walks in 55.2 innings. But in 12 September appearances out of the Cardinals bullpen in a mostly mop-up role, Axford posted a 1.93 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 9.1 innings. He carried that success into the post-season, punching out nine while surrendering just two hits in 5.2 innings.
But as helpful as the pitch-tipping lesson was, it wasn’t behind what Axford attributed his 2013 early-season struggles to. The big culprit in that case—at least in his eyes—was a “dead arm” he developed after pitching for Canada last spring in the World Baseball Classic.
Axford had been clocked during the March event throwing as hard as 98 miles per hour, but during his first four games of the season with the Brewers, his velocity had dipped to 91-92 m.p.h. With nothing physically wrong with him, Axford surmises he didn’t give his arm enough time to get acclimated to the playoff-type intensity—and adrenaline—the WBC provided.
“I think I just didn’t prepare myself well enough and I got ready too fast,” he explained. “I just approached things the wrong way.”
And as for the role adrenaline may have played:
“That’s huge,” he said. “You think you might be taking it easy, but the adrenaline, the crowd, the atmosphere, pitching for your country – that’s the first time I’ve done it in 10 years so I was ecstatic; wanted to be out there and loved every minute of it. But I just think I prepared myself the wrong way for it.”
Following the season, the Cardinals decided not to offer Axford salary arbitration, thereby making him a free agent. He had no shortage of suitors. Fourteen teams reached out to Axford and he received “six or seven” offers “fairly quickly.”
But in the end, the opportunity to close games, pitch close to home—Axford and his family still reside in the Hamilton area—and following a strong push over phone conversations with Cleveland manager Terry Francona, Axford and the Tribe came to terms on a one-year, $5-million deal.
Playing in the American League for the first time in his career will provide Axford with a number of firsts, including the opportunity to take the mound on Canadian soil.
“I’m definitely looking forward to pitching in Toronto,” he said, adding the last time he pitched in the 416 area code was back in high school. “I already know it’s in May (13-15), and I know we have a day off while we’re here, so it’ll be great to actually be home and actually drive here. That will be fantastic.”
What’s not lost on him is the opportunity may not have presented itself had he been dealt elsewhere last summer.
“St. Louis really helped me out,” he explained. “Picking that up and helping me along the way for that two months, pitching well, and pitching well in the playoffs, I think that’s what kind of catapulted the opportunity for me to be a closer again.”
A year from now the Cleveland Indians might be just as grateful.
