Lakeland, Fla. — Michael Lorenzen is here to pitch. First and foremost. The Tigers are paying the 31-year-old veteran right-hander $8.5 million, with $1.5 million in reachable incentives, to help stabilize their starting rotation.
But, if he had his way, he’d be a two-way player.
“I’m obsessed with the game of baseball,” Lorenzen said Monday after going through a light workout ahead of the first official pitchers-and-catchers workout Wednesday. “For me to just specialize in pitching — I mean, I was a center fielder my entire life. So for me, I never thought I’d be a Major League pitcher. I always thought I’d be a Major League center fielder.
“For me to be a Major League pitcher is actually strange. I feel more comfortable being a position player.”
Did we mention that Lorenzen can rake? He posted a .322 average and an .869 OPS in three seasons at Cal State Fullerton, and in sporadic at-bats over six minor-league seasons, he had an OPS of .640. The Reds thought enough of his hitting to give him 147 plate appearances over seven seasons (.710 OPS, seven home runs, .233 batting average), even playing him in the outfield in 34 games.
He hit .290 and slugged .710 with four home runs in 34 plate appearances in 2018.
Needless to say, Lorenzen is no fan of the universal-DH rule.
“I want to hit,” he said. “The Angels wouldn’t let me hit last year. I tried and tried. They wouldn’t let me do it.”
The Angels, of course, already have the best two-way player on the planet in Shohei Ohtani.
“I’m going to continue to try here and see if I get different results,” he said. “I’m going to keep asking.”
Even though the Tigers are desperate for any offensive upgrade, the odds remain stacked against Lorenzen. But, to his credit, he’s got a shipment of bats on the way to Lakeland, and he’s itching to get into the smart cage and see how his swing plays.
“I hit during the offseason,” he said. “I made one little adjustment to my swing and it feels pretty good. Just where I start my bat, making sure my bat path doesn’t get too steep … I know I would have some success with the bat if I had the opportunity.”
Truth be told, Ohtani’s presence proved to be a double-whammy for Lorenzen last season, his only season with the Angels, after seven seasons in Cincinnati. Not only did he have to endure his first season without a single at-bat, but to facilitate Ohtani pitching and playing every day, the Angels had to use a six-man rotation.
That turned out to be a tough adjustment for Lorenzen in his first full year as a starting pitcher. The extra day between starts, for someone as hyperactive as he is, became a problem.
“The most important thing was taking care of the volume of throwing,” he said. “How to be prepared between starts. On my start days, I felt locked in and prepared. It was those days when you get a little bored that got me in trouble. I think throwing in a five-man rotation maybe will help.
“Throwing once every seven days was just so much time.”
Lorenzen ended up throwing too much between starts — two 40-pitch bullpens spaced two days apart. That’s double the normal between-game work for a starting pitcher. His arm slot dropped, his velocity started to decline and ultimately, he spent two months on the injured list because of shoulder soreness.
“I’m a guy who likes to do stuff,” he said. “When I have that much time, I have a tendency to overdo it. It will be nice to be in a five-man rotation, knowing I can rest and take care of my arm between starts.”
When Lorenzen came off the IL, though, he was the pitcher the Angels were expecting. He posted a 2.26 ERA over his last five starts, holding hitters to a .161/.271/.290 slash line, with 30 strikeouts in 26.2 innings. Arm-care issues aside, he knows his six-pitch mix can serve him well two and three times through a batting order.
“It played pretty well, especially after I came back and raised my arm slot back up,” Lorenzen said. “I have enough weapons and enough command of those weapons to be able to hide a pitch to bring out later on.”
His changeup (primarily to left-handed hitters) and slider (primarily to right-handed hitters) were immensely effective when he was locating both his 95-mph four-seam fastball and 94-mph two-seam fastball.
Hitters batted .154 against the changeup with a 38% swing-and-miss rate, .189 against the slider with a 35% whiff rate.
He also mixed in a cutter and curveball.
“Being able to read the hitters, seeing how I threw to them the times before and knowing what they might be looking for the third time — all that stuff you don’t really learn working out of the bullpen,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to start. I knew if I had the chance, I’d be able to take in all that information and make adjustments and execute a game plan.”
His statistics, even in an unsteady year for him last year, validate that. He allowed 25 runs, with opponents hitting .227 with a .712 OPS in the first three innings; 14 runs, .201 batting average, .609 OPS in innings four, five and six.
“I had a great offseason,” he said. “I’m healthy coming in, and I feel I am exactly where I need to be right now to get here, get built up and get ready for the season.”
And, while he’s at it, figure out a way to sneak into a hitter’s group.
“I’ll try to sneak into a cage,” he said, smiling. “I will put all that tech stuff on me and see if my swing plays.”
Twitter: @cmccosky