St. Petersburg, Fla. — If you are looking for a living, breathing, human example of the Tigers’ resiliency this season, lock in on veteran lefty Derek Holland.
“I wish people understood how far I’ve come,” he said. “It’s not been an easy road.”
The Tigers are his fifth team in five years, that after pitching in two World Series and being a vital cog in the Texas Rangers rotation for most of his eight seasons there. To find himself essentially on baseball’s scrap heap, trying to reinvent himself as a reliever with the Pittsburgh Pirates last season — that might signal the end of the line for most players.
It signaled a rebirth for Holland.
“I think his acceptance of what he needs to do to make the transition to the ‘pen has been key,” manager AJ Hinch said. “This is his first year in the bullpen, fully. He dabbled in it last year. Oftentimes we overlook these transitions. We just say he’s a veteran guy; he’s going to be able to do anything.
“But you have to pitch differently out of the ‘pen. And he’s had some inglorious outings where he’s had to soak up innings where we needed 40 or 50 pitches out of him. He’s needed to prepare and handle things differently that he’s ever done in his career.”
To those fans who were heckling him unmercifully at the end of April when his ERA was a couple of touchdowns (14.63) — yes, he heard you — you might want to make amends. Since the All-Star break, when his shoulder stopped barking at him and he regathered his mechanics, he’s posted a 2.57 ERA, allowing eight runs in 28 innings with 27 strikeouts.
He’s pitched 9.1 shutout innings in September.
“I just think it’s my mechanics,” Holland said. “Being able to stay back. (Pitching coach Chris) Fetter talked to me about it. Like, when you stay back, you are a lot better. You could see that in spring training. I had one of the best spring trainings of my career. It was because I was able to stay back.”
For the record, Fetter only uses the phrase “stay back” with Holland.
“Yeah, Fett doesn’t like that term,” Holland said, laughing. “But I’m old-school, so it’s OK. He wouldn’t say stay back to Tarik Skubal or Casey Mize.”
Staying back, keep his weight on his left leg a little longer before he starts his motion, helps him drive straight toward the plate. It’s helped get his velocity back up to 93, 94 and occasionally 95 mph. It helps him stay on top of his secondary pitches. It’s helped him with his move to first base and his ability to control the running game.
It’s something that, for probably a bunch of reasons, he’d gotten away from without even realizing it.
“I’ve always been that way,” he said. “Sometimes we have a tendency to be too quick and also I tend to drift. I have to keep myself from drifting. When you are doing so many reps, you can create a bad habit and stick with it, even though you think you’re not.”
This goes back to his days in Texas when he used to listen to Michael Young talk about hitting. It’s not as counterintuitive as it sounds.
“He would say, when you get in slumps you want to change all of your mechanics because you can’t figure out what exactly it is that’s gone wrong,” Holland said. “And it’s really just a millisecond that you’re off. It’s all timing.”
That got Holland thinking how that same concept applies to pitching rhythm and mechanics. If you are too quick to the plate, your arm has to try to catch up and that’s where injuries and discomfort, like his shoulder problems happen. And if you are too slow and your arm path is too long, you lose command.
“Like, Mike’s not going to tell me how to pitch and I’m not going to tell him how to hit, but when you hear a guy saying, ‘I’m just a couple of seconds off and I’m trying to catch myself back up,’ it’s the same thing as pitching,” Holland said. “We do the same thing. We get to the same power position, why not look at that from a pitcher’s perspective.
“I’m going too quick, I’m drifting. If I can stay back a little longer, I’m able to control myself and get to where I need to be.”
The trick is to keep the same rhythm, keep the same pace in your delivery, keep your weight back just long enough. Lately, Holland has mastered it.
“You have to be perfect every single time to get the same result that you want,” he said. “Consistency is one of the hardest things to do in this game, period. That’s why guys like (Max) Scherzer and (Clayton) Kershaw — I mean, hats off to them. They are perfect every single time in my opinion.”
Holland will be 35 in October. He’s got 13 seasons and 1,461.1 big-league innings invested in this game. And the way he sees it, he’s got at least three more good years left in him. He’d like to spend them in a Tigers’ uniform.
“I’ve already talked to AJ about it,” he said. “One, it’s been an honor playing for him. I have a lot of respect for him. Playing for him has been tremendous. The guy is an electric manager. I told him I would love to come back here. I said I know you guys are on the winning side of this just from what he’s already done.
“We’ve shown what this team is capable of. The culture has been changed in a great way and I just want to be part of it.”
It’s been six years since he’s pitched in the postseason. He wants one more crack at that before he hangs it up.
“This team is going to be something,” Holland said. “And I’m not just saying that because I’m playing here. You can see it.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky