BRADENTON, Fla. — Last September Gavin Floyd ran out of the Cleveland Indians bullpen in Toronto to face his first major league hitters in 15 months. Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion were waiting for him.
“Packed house, facing those three guys — it was like, welcome back,” says Floyd, who retired the heart of the Blue Jays order on two groundballs and a lineout. “It was fun. It was like being a kid again, honestly. Just the purity of that first time you get back on the mound. It was just a really cool, memorable experience.”
The experiences Floyd has had over the last three seasons of his career have been significantly less positive. In 2013, at the age of 30, he went under the knife for Tommy John surgery. He returned the next season, but nine starts into his comeback he threw a curveball and felt a pop in his elbow, which was the sensation of his olecranon bone fracturing.
He returned from that setback eight months later for 2015 spring training with the Indians, but as he started to ramp up his pitching schedule he felt more soreness than he normally does in his elbow. He took a few days off and then threw live batting practice, walking off the mound with a golf ball sized lump on his elbow — he’d fractured his olecranon bone again.
That put him on the shelf for six more months until he finally returned for that outing against the Blue Jays with a plate and eight screws driven into his elbow. He finally felt like himself again.
“For the first time in a long time it felt like my normal elbow. I was able to put all kinds of pressure on it, going full effort, really letting go,” Floyd says. “And there was zero discomfort. Just nothing. It’s crazy. And it’s awesome. I honestly don’t completely understand it.”
Now he wears the same uniform as those three hitters he retired last September, competing for a job as the Toronto Blue Jays’ fifth starter after signing a one-year, $1-million deal late this off-season.
It started when the Blue Jays asked Floyd to swing by their Dunedin complex this January and throw a showcase for them. He made the 25-minute drive down from his home in Trinity, Fla., and met Blue Jays assistant GM Andrew Tinnish, who told him there was an opportunity with the team and that they were interested in Floyd filling it.
The right-hander has never been the hardest thrower in baseball, relying instead on movement and a five-pitch mix to get batters out over his 11-year career as a starter, but he had touched 95-m.p.h. out of Cleveland’s bullpen last season, which was encouraging to the Blue Jays. He showed them what he could do in Dunedin, and a week and a half later he was signing his contract, a major league one that guarantees him his salary and a spot on the 40-man roster.
“One thing with this organization since I’ve been here is they’ve always given guys opportunities,” says Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “So, we’ll see what he’s got left. He’s a proven big league starter, so those guys usually know how to survive. He could end up being that fifth guy in the rotation or if not there’s a spot in the bullpen for him.”
Floyd has made it clear he’d rather start, as that’s what he’s done his entire life, and Thursday afternoon in Bradenton he was given his first opportunity to prove he can do so. His first inning was rocky to say the least, as Floyd fell behind every batter he faced and struggled to find the zone, throwing just 11 of 26 pitches for strikes.
Part of the issue was the slickness of the mound beneath him. It wasn’t taking the spikes on his stride foot, which would slip and slide as he delivered. In between his first and second inning the grounds crew cleaned up the area, and suddenly Floyd was able to find the zone, throwing 10 of his 14 pitches that inning for strikes.
“Every pitch I was slipping, and I have a long stride so I was really conscious of it,” Floyd says. “But I’ve dealt with it before and sometimes I’m able to make better pitches. Pitching’s all about adjusting to different things like that.”
For what it’s worth, several Blue Jays who watched Floyd said his stuff looked fantastic and moved all over the place — it simply didn’t end up in the zone.
“Everything looked good,” said Humberto Quintero, who caught him. “He threw sinkers, four-seamers, cutters, sliders, and the curveball was really, really good. He had that trouble with the mound in the first, but in the second inning everything was perfect. He threw all his pitches for strikes; everything was down. I really liked it.”
Mound trouble or not, Floyd’s just happy to be pitching for a major league team. He says he felt like a ghost with the Indians last season — a presence with the team that no one ever got to see. The majority of his life since 2013 has been spent working relentlessly to rehab his elbow from all three of his injuries. And on his darkest days, he wondered if he’d ever pitch again.
“You never know. This life is full of disappointments, struggles. Everybody thinks it’s going to be candy and clouds. But that’s not reality,” Floyd says. “You don’t always bounce back well. Surgeries aren’t always clean cut. Any time you get as seriously injured as I did, it would be naïve not to think about what’s next. I definitely had a lot of time to think about that.”
A lot of time to think about his career, to think about his place in the game, to think about fortune, and to think about whether or not he can still do this. Floyd’s had nothing but time over the last three years, and he’s simply happy he didn’t run out. This spring isn’t about fighting for the fifth rotation spot for him. It’s about feeling like himself again.
“I’ve done this for a long time — I know it’s gonna play out the way it’s gonna play out. I’m treating it like a spring where I’m just getting ready for the season and working on things. I know there’s a competition, but at the same time you’re just trying to go out there and execute as best as you can,” Floyd says. “Spring training is really just a month of adjustments. I’ll just get ready to compete, whether it’s in the bullpen or in the starting rotation. I’m just excited to be back.”
