Blue Jays: John Axford has been an integral piece of the bullpen

John Axford wasn’t supposed to be here. The Blue Jays took a chance on a 35-year old pitcher recovering from a shoulder injury and have never regretted the decision since.

John Axford’s 2017 season resembled the Blue Jays 2017 season, in some ways. He was plagued by injuries from the beginning of the year and then he was out of the race (designated for assignment by the Athletics) by the end of July.

Axford felt lost after he was cut by the Athletics. So, he returned to a place of comfort, the ballpark. Axford sat behind the Athletics dugout with a hotdog and a beer and took in the game that he loved from a different perspective.

Despite the harsh end in Oakland, Axford has started a great new beginning in Toronto. Across 16 1/3 innings, Axford has pitched to a stellar 1.65 ERA and has been worth 0.2 WAR.

Axford has hit his stride in Toronto. His walks are down, his line drives are down, and his groundball percentage is back up. At a 54.5% groundball rate and a great 29.5% soft contact percentage, Axford has found a great home in the middle of the Blue Jays bullpen.

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Clearly, the greatest revelation that Axford has found in his pitching repertoire is the sinker. While struggling last year, Axford used the sinker 36.9% of the time but has now bumped up sinker usage to 73.8%, likely the cause of his great groundball rate and soft contact percentage.

As well, it seems that his time off recovering from his injury could have been a good break for the veteran’s arm. Currently, Axford has improved his velocity on each variation of his fastball.

His four-seamer has moved from 95.5 mph last year to 96.1 mph this year. His cutter has jumped from 92.6 mph to 93.3 mph. Finally, the great sinker he has found has had the greatest improvement, launching itself from 95.6 mph to 96.4 mph this year. I don’t know about you, but I would not want to try to hit a sinker at 96-97 mph.

More than the numbers, though, Axford has been a great veteran presence in the bullpen. The Blue Jays broadcasters, Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler, rave about the reviews they have received from other bullpen arms. Even more impressive, the veteran has taken a team-first attitude by volunteering to pitch multiple innings.

An experienced veteran, Axford can understand the situation, the bullpen has been overworked recently. Therefore, he has taken it upon himself to shoulder some of the extra load, hoping to take some of the pressure off the younger relievers. This is quite an acceptance of workload from a man coming off of a shoulder injury just last year.

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Originally an under the radar minor league signing heralded for his Canadian past more than anything, John Axford has been integral to the success of the 2018 Blue Jays. Whether it is through leadership or performance, Axford has proven that he was well worth the chance the Blue Jays took on a recovering veteran.