EASTLAKE, Ohio – The lead-up to Thursday’s draft brought back a flood of memories for right-hander Jon Harris, who a year ago was selected in the first round, 29th overall, by the Toronto Blue Jays.
“I was sitting on the couch in my aunt’s house in Lake St. Louis,” Harris recalled by the visitor’s dugout at Classic Park before his low-A Lansing Lugnuts met the host Lake County Captains. “I just sat there flipping through my phone, going on Twitter, talking to my agent, talking to my dad, just interacting with the people around me. The nerves, the butterflies, you’re like, OK, let’s get this going so I know what’s going to happen instead of sitting there biting off all the fingernails I had left.
“It was fun, it was nerve-wracking, it was stressful, but I’m happy where I am now, I’m glad Toronto gave me the second chance.”
The Blue Jays are similarly pleased, having drafted him in the 33rd round in 2012 as a high-schooler before watching him blossom over three years at Missouri State. They didn’t expect him to still be around at 29 last summer, and jumped at the chance redraft him.
He signed quickly and ended up pitching in 12 games, 11 of them starts, with short-season A Vancouver where the transition to a five-man rotation instead of the once-a-week outings in college along with the toll of a long season caught up with him. A 6.75 ERA and 1.917 WHIP over 36 innings led him to buy into some changes roving pitching instructor Sal Fasano recommended, and Harris began implementing them during the fall instructional league.
“It was a tough transition (to pro ball), I was tired physically, drained mentally and I just had to push through it, grind through it and finish off the summer season,” he said. “I took to (the changes), I believed in what they were talking about it and it’s helped with the success I’ve had because I really feel confident.”
Fasano urged Harris to lift his hands over his head at the start of his windup and to switch from the first base side of the pitching rubber to the third base side. After a rough outing in his season debut, when he allowed three runs on four walks and two hits and didn’t escape the first inning, he reeled off 32 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run.
Overall, he’s 4-1 with a 2.36 ERA in nine starts with 39 strikeouts against 17 walks in 42 innings.
“The whole change in my windup, just to give me rhythm instead of being like a robot and staggered,” said Harris. “Sal Fasano wanted to give me some movement with my hands instead of keeping them centred to my body just so I can get some rhythm going and develop better timing with my hands coming apart, my leg kick, everything else. The move on the rubber was just a deception thing. Basically, if it’s a right-handed batter, they want me to throw from behind the right-handed batter and if it’s a left-handed batter, they want it to feel like I’m throwing across, right at him. It’s paid off. There’s more sharpness to my breaking ball, I’m having a lot better command of the fastball, getting more downhill.”
Sometimes players, especially high draft picks, can be reluctant to make changes, but the quick results helped Harris trust in them quickly. His slider improved – he’s experimented with different pressure on the ball from his middle finger to get more or less break – and he’s made gains with his changeup, the offerings becoming nice complements to the 22-year-old’s fastball and curveball.
“You go into (the changes) hoping for the best and so far it’s been that,” said Lugnuts manager John Schneider. “His secondary stuff is great. When he came in, he could always spin a breaking ball – curveball and slider – and just the use of his changeup has really helped him against left-handed hitters. The breaking stuff is kind of an out pitch for him to lefties, and the changeup gives his fastball that much more life. When you can mix in 10 or so changeups per outing, it keeps the hitters a bit more off-balanced.”
A blip on May 28, when Harris got hammered for eight runs, seven earned, on nine hits and four walks in 4.1 innings, was followed by five innings of one-run ball in his next start, which he left early because of a cramp in his right hip.
The Lugnuts skipped his start Wednesday and he’s to throw a bullpen Friday in preparation for an outing Monday.
Once he returns, he’ll resume his quest to eventually pitch on a big-league mound, something he’s already done, once. As a 10-year-old, on a kids day at old Busch Stadium, he was one of four children selected to throw out a ceremonial first pitch before a St. Louis Cardinals game.
“They announced me as a girl because they read the name of the girl standing in line behind me and they had to make a correction on the PA system,” recalled Harris. “It was cool, being 10, you’re standing in a stadium with 60,000 fans and I looked around, I was like, this is cool, this is what the guys I grew up idolizing do for a living.”
Delivering the pitch to Kerry Robinson, however, was a little tougher.
“Heart was beating, butterflies were going, I went high and away,” Harris said. “I still have the picture in my basement, just the look on my face when I was throwing the ball, I was terrified, absolutely terrified.”
Harris is planning to wear a much different look next time.
