When Jake Bird arrived in a trade from the Rockies at last year’s deadline, he was looking forward to finding out what made the Yankees so good at making relief pitchers better.
One example he was keenly aware of when he was in Colorado was another right-hander who had come to the Yankees and turned his career around: Luke Weaver.
“What Luke had done really stood out,’’ Bird said. “To go from struggling to starring in the playoffs here and then continue to have success, that made an impression, in particular.”
Bird’s time as a teammate with Weaver proved to be quite short, as Bird was almost immediately sent to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after getting to the Yankees because of his ineffectiveness.
“I was excited to pick his brain, but I didn’t get a chance to talk to him that long,’’ Bird said.
Instead, Bird made the most of what turned out to be an extended run with SWB, where he reconnected with the team’s pitching coach, Spencer Medick, whom Bird met briefly when Medick still worked with Driveline.
“I had talked to Spencer about pitch design and knew he was a smart guy,’’ Bird said. “The whole organization is good at finding what makes guys good.”
For Bird, his focus changed after getting sent down to the minors.
“When I first got here, it was kind of ‘Do your thing,’ ” Bird said. “But when I went down, it was more about working on my stuff to at least get back to earlier last season.”
So his shaky performance — or worse — at SWB following the trade didn’t shatter his confidence.
“You never want to [struggle], no matter where you are,’’ Bird said. “But I knew they were helping me build my strengths and improve my weaknesses.”
The results have been excellent so far this year.
After another strong performance in Friday’s win over Miami, Bird entered Saturday having allowed just one hit — and no walks — while striking out five in 4 ¹/₃ innings this season.
“They had thoughts on my repertoire [at SWB] and presented it through a lens of who I was as a pitcher,’’ Bird said.
Bird’s stuff has intrigued teams in the past — which is what led the Yankees to acquire him despite poor overall numbers.
Perhaps he’s now pitching at the level organizations had believed he’d get to and showing what his ceiling could be.
“I don’t think about that,’’ Bird said. “I just want to find out and be the best I can be and have the right approach… It’s been a decent start for me, but I think there’s a lot of room to improve.’’
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
