ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The trade deadline came and went in the summer of 2018 and Bryan Baker had no reason to think that he’d be anywhere other than high-A Lancaster for the rest of the season. Sure, the parent club Colorado Rockies had made an add before the cut-off, acquiring reliever Seunghwan Oh from the Toronto Blue Jays for prospects Forrest Wall and Chad Spanberger, but once that had passed, the right-hander, then 23, never considered that he could possibly end up as the player to be named later in the trade.
That’s why, when word came on Aug. 14 that he was, “it was a total shock to me” and “pretty crazy being kind of blindsided,” he recalled. “But ultimately a really good opportunity to switch organizations and get new scenery and a new avenue to succeed. I picked up on a lot of different things as soon as I got traded over to the Blue Jays. And they helped develop me even further. Looking back now, I'm very thankful to be traded in that spot and at least be able to debut with the Blue Jays.”
Baker did that three years later, throwing a clean eighth inning during an 8-0 romp over the Oakland Athletics on Sept. 5, 2021. His time with the Blue Jays didn’t last long, though, as they designated him for assignment that fall and on Nov. 8 he was claimed off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles, where he established himself as a big-league reliever. Last summer, Baker was the centrepiece of a second deadline deal, sent to the Tampa Bay Rays for the 37th overall pick in the 2025 draft, and this year emerging as an all-star closer for the American League’s best team.
Now 31, he made his World Series debut with two shutout innings in Tuesday night’s 4-3, 12-inning thriller over the Milwaukee Brewers, covering the eighth and ninth before watching the late drama unfold.
“I wish I didn't have to watch that much more, I wish we got it done a little bit earlier,” he said with a laugh in the clubhouse later. “Definitely very different from what I'm used to. I don't even know how to react to the game right now because I'm like Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights, I don't know what to do with my hands right now. But we'll take a win any way we can get it, and we're just going to keep trying to extend our season.”
Baker’s steadiness at the back of a bullpen that’s been inconsistent so far in these playoffs will be essential if that’s going to happen. Game 5 is Wednesday (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT).
Riding a fastball-changeup mix, he’s now covered nine innings over eight post-season outings and has yet to give up a run, allowing only two hits and two walks with six strikeouts. In 65 regular-season outings, he posted a 1.44 ERA in 62.1 frames while tying Canadian Cade Smith of the Cleveland Guardians for the league lead in saves at 41.
That marked a big jump in his performance with the Orioles, where he was solid over 3½ seasons, posting a 3.73 ERA in 176.1 innings over 173 games, but not dominant the way he’s been this year.
Adjusting the grip on his changeup last spring training helped make the pitch more consistent and his usage with the offering went from 13.8 per cent in 2024 to 27.9 per cent last year to 43.8 per cent this season. That also turned his slider, which he’d thrown in the 25-30 per cent range as his primary secondary pitch, into a token offering at 3.3 per cent.
Baker had a changeup while with the Blue Jays, but “early in my career, if I was behind in the count and I had to throw a strike, it wouldn't even enter my mind because I was like, man, this is a coin flip if I can even get it over the zone.”
“The consistency of it, I think, is what has taken the biggest step in the last year,” he added. “The pitch itself improved, the stuff, but more importantly, the ability to throw it over the plate in counts that before I wouldn't have been comfortable.”
In turn, that’s helped Baker become comfortable pitching when the stakes are highest, with a game-entering Leverage Index number of 1.71 this season — 1.00 being average pressure — after hovering between 0.62 and 1.36 with the Orioles.
Even in lower-stress situations, those outings taught him “how to pitch to guys when they have different intents,” he said. “The casual watcher probably doesn't know how different it is, but if you're down five runs in the fourth inning, it's very different than if you're up one run in the ninth inning. The hitters' approaches that you're facing are different. The nerves are different. The adrenaline is different. It's almost a different sport, to be honest. To be able to go through all these different scenarios, open games, first guy out of the bullpen in Baltimore, I've been a two-inning guy, and then obviously the last couple years getting more towards that leverage spot has helped me overall to be able to overcome any scenario that's thrown at me.”
That’s also helped him be consistent in a role where a mistake usually ends in a loss, often in disheartening fashion. In the post-season, the stress only amplifies, and he’s made deliberate efforts to flush any thoughts of “never been in this spot before, blah blah blah,” from his mind because “it can get pretty overwhelming.”
“Consistency is everything at this level,” he explained. “Just about everybody who gets an opportunity to be a big-leaguer and play in this league has got the talent, obviously, and it’s being able to do it night in, night out. On the pitching side of things, that really comes down to, No. 1, staying healthy, but also, No. 2, filling up the zone.
“My whole career, I had flashes of being a good pitcher,” he continued. “I don't think I really was until the last couple of years, where I've kind of reached that point of feeling a lot more consistent night in, night out. And a lot of that has to do with the changeup, obviously, and being able to throw the changeup in the zone is probably the biggest factor.”
All of it making him a major factor for the Rays in their push to the World Series and now their attempt to send the best-of-seven back to Milwaukee.
