Detroit — This isn’t a story about how things fell apart for Buck Farmer last season. It’s about how he’s putting it all back together. It’s not a story of failure, but of strength, accountability, faith and resiliency.
And in that sense, this is a story of survival and success
Farmer went into the last season, his eighth in Detroit, the dean of the Tigers’ bullpen. He was, from 2018-2020, one of former manager Ron Gardenhire’s most trusted arms, pitching in 162 games, 158.1 innings, posting a 10-10 record with a 3.92 ERA (118 ERA-plus).
But nothing went right last year. In his age-30 season with a new manager (AJ Hinch) and pitching coach (Chris Fetter), his command was wonky. His mechanics seemed stiff and forced. He was bouncing change-ups and yanking sliders, pitching in hitter’s counts and generally taking a beating.
He never came close to gaining the trust of the new staff.
“It was probably my worst spring training ever,” Farmer said on Friday, driving home from a workout in Winder, Georgia. “And then I got off to that rough start in the season…I think I just started to put so much pressure on myself to get the ERA down and all of that. It was causing almost a snowball effect at that point.”
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He gave up five runs in his first two outings of the season and never recovered. His ERA was over 6.0, his WHIP over 1.7 and the Tigers, on Aug. 15, designated him for assignment. Just like that, after 241 games over eight seasons, Farmer was no longer a Tiger.
“I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say there were times I felt – I don’t want to say defeated – but I had some animosity,” Farmer said.
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He brooded, maybe gave in to self-pity, but not for long. He came quick to the realization there was only one person to blame.
“When I boiled it all down and looked at myself in the mirror, it was all a part of me not doing my job,” he said. “In reality, the only person I could blame was myself. Because I wasn’t going out there and doing what I needed to do. It’s just like any other job, if you don’t do what you are paid to do, what they expect you to do, you are probably going to get fired.
“Once I got my head around that and grasped that, it took me very little time to put it in the rearview mirror and move forward.”
‘Breath of fresh air’
The lifeline came from the Texas Rangers, who signed him to a minor-league deal and sent him to Triple-A Round Rock.
“Going to Round Rock gave me the ability to take a step back and not put so much pressure on myself,” Farmer said. “It was cool. They put a lot of trust in me right there. I know it’s Triple-A and not the big leagues, but they threw me right into the fire. It was a lot of fun.”
Farmer made 15 appearances there in September – often reunited with his old battery mate John Hicks – and posted a 2-1 record with eight saves and a 3.60 ERA and 15 strikeouts. Whatever mental demons he was battling in Detroit were vanquished.
“The pitching coach (Bill Simas) and the analytics department in Round Rock were super helpful working with me,” he said. “They made some minute adjustments here and there, but it was just, went I first got there, the pitching coach said, ‘You had a long career so obviously you’re doing something right. Just get back to doing that.’
“He gave me that reassurance without me even asking.”
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Sometimes, too, things resonate more clearly when they come from a new voice. Certainly, Farmer had all the analytics and data he could ever have wanted in Detroit, especially with Hinch and Fetter. But when he got to Round Rock, the data presentation they gave him struck a chord.
“It was like a breath of fresh air, honestly,” Farmer said. “Not taking away anything from our analytics guys (in Detroit). They were great. Any information you wanted you could ask for it. It’s just with the Texas organization, they more just present it to you and say here’s something to think about. They’re not shoving it down your throat and saying you have to do this.”
They showed Farmer that every time he threw his slider off his change-up, or his change-up off his slider, hitters swung and missed 40% of the time, either on the first or second pitch. They also encouraged him to spot his fastball, which was still hitting 94 mph on the radar gun, up in the zone and trust it.
“I went back to the mentality I had in 2019-2020,” Farmer said. “I took the mentality of, here it is. It’s me against you. Best of luck. This goes back to the snowball effect last year. Once I got off to such a rough start, I started to tip-toe around the strike zone because I was afraid of getting hurt.
“I was like 1-0 and 2-0 right off the bat an in the big leagues, that’s a recipe for disaster.”
Fresh outlook, new weapon
Here’s the most exciting part of Farmer’s renaissance. With the help of veteran reliever Matt Wisler and the pitching instructors at the Full Count Baseball facility in Winder, Farmer has refashioned his slider.
“It’s not a completely new pitch, but it will be totally different than in years past,” he said. “Spin-wise, I completely changed it.”
Using the same grip Wisler uses, Farmer has been able to generate a different and more effective spin angle. His old slider was solid, but it only generated a 25% whiff rate.
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“People have mentioned to me that my slider didn’t have enough movement and it’s true,” he said. “If you go back and look at the metrics, the spin on the ball was legitimately just a bullet, very little horizontal or vertical break. It was a gyro, essentially. The only thing that was creating movement was my arm path.
“But I changed the grip, thanks to my buddy Matt Wisler, and the place I’m working out at taught me a new thought process on how to spin the ball. Knock on wood, it has been an incredible difference in movement and spin.”
For the first time in his career, Farmer is a free agent. A minor-league free agent. There is uncertainty that comes with that but also the excitement of a new challenge. Because he’s a minor-league free agent, teams can call and express interest, though they cannot negotiate contracts.
Farmer has gotten enough teams calling to be cautiously optimistic about being in someone’s camp when the lockout is over.
“I can’t wait to get started and to see how all this translates against big-league hitters,” he said. “I am just super encouraged right now.”
He’s come a long way from the depths of that sudden DFA last August.
“It just seemed like my time was up in Detroit,” Farmer said. “As much as I loved the city and the fans, they always welcomed us every year, it was just one of those things where that might’ve been the best thing for my career at that point.”
Twitter: @cmccosky