Tim Mayza goes from 'lowest of lows' with Blue Jays to 'highest of highs' with Yankees

LOS ANGELES — In a season that, in his own words, brought him to the lowest of lows in his professional life, the hard bottom for Tim Mayza came June 29, when the Toronto Blue Jays designated him for assignment, and in the days of uncertainty that followed. For three months the club’s longest-serving player tried to diagnose the reasons behind a velocity drop and subsequent struggles, to no avail. The push off the roster and eventual release was the team’s admission that it was out of ideas. Twelve years in the org ended in a snap.

“I was very self-aware that the season was not going as planned and if you don't pitch well, there's always somebody behind you that's trying to take your spot,” Mayza says. “So you constantly have to improve your game or there's a chance that you get released. That was just the reality of the situation.”

Amid the limbo, Mayza took a call from the New York Yankees, and they weren’t just interested in him, they had a plan to get him right. A week after his July 5 release, he signed a minor-league deal with them and reported to their pitching lab in Tampa, where they studied his mechanical flaws and worked on patches. On July 24, he made the first of nine appearances with triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before donning pinstripes in the big-leagues.

Though he wasn’t yet the Mayza of the previous three seasons, he was much improved, seeing action in 15 games for the American League East champions and pitching twice during the Yankees division and championship series victories. He’s on their World Series roster, too, an unlikely capper to this year of tumult.

“You look at the season as a whole and the roller-coaster that it's been, realistically, it’s brought me to the lowest of lows in my baseball time, but also now we're here and it's the highest of highs,” he says. “So I have felt all emotions and everything in between, and I'm just excited to be a part of the journey with the Yankees, helping any way possible. It led to the World Series. Just a crazy season. I’m fortunate that I was able to land on my feet and be here. It's been awesome.”

Awesome is also a good way to describe the way Mayza pitched from 2021, his first year back after Tommy John surgery, through 2023. He logged 155 innings over 193 games during that span, pitching to a 2.67 ERA and 1.103 WHIP with 154 strikeouts, producing nearly four wins of value during that span, as calculated by Baseball Reference.

The average velocity on his sinker during those three years was 94 m.p.h., 93.7 m.p.h. and 93.4 m.p.h., pairing perfectly with a swing-and-miss slider. This year, though, he was barely getting up to 92 m.p.h. in the early going and even had an outing where he sat 89ish. It showed in the results, as in 24.2 innings over 35 games, his ERA was a jaw-dropping 8.03, thanks to 36 hits and 12 walks against, with only 16 strikeouts.

“That was really a key factor in not being able to miss bats or have weak contact,” he says.

During his time in the pitching lab, the Yankees dove into some of the inefficiencies of his mechanics. They juxtaposed his delivery from 2021 against where he was at that moment, broke down what was leading to the variances and created a regimen of drills to correct the issues.

“A lot of it was lower-half based and the timing of where my hips were and my foot plant,” Mayza says. “Being able to see it in the lab and pair it with here's what it looks like in a game, you just get to work with trial and error. Throw a pitch, see if that's what it was, a lot of back-and-forth with throwing pitches, looking at video, deep dives.”

The tools at the Yankees’ lab aren’t very different than those the Blue Jays have — both “provide what I feel like is similar information,” he says — but “the way it's communicated is a little different from the Jays side to the Yankees.”

Mayza’s velocity ticked up with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and he had far less variance during his month-and-half in New York, with a corresponding improvement in his results. In 18 innings across 15 games, his ERA was 4.00, allowing 18 hits and three walks with 12 strikeouts, making him a useful piece for a team with designs on winning it all.

“It's been exciting because obviously competing against Timmy over the last few years, he's been one of the core pieces to the Jays bullpen, he's had a lot of success,” says Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “When we got him, kind of taking a flyer on him when he got DFA’d, he worked a lot with our pitching group and in the lab trying to get some of that stuff back that's been a hallmark of his success. We saw some of that stuff tick up. When he got the opportunity and got called up with us, he did a nice job. He's become an important member down there.”

What lies ahead beyond the World Series is uncertain.

Mayza, 32, has one final year of arbitration eligibility remaining but platforming off a $3.59 million salary this year, he’s a candidate to be non-tendered. If he does re-enter the market again, he’ll do so under far better circumstances than he did in the summer, after the Blue Jays cut ties with him.

“It was tough. It was emotional for me. It was emotional for my family, leaving the franchise and the team that drafted me and was able to give me my first shot in the big-leagues and saw the development throughout,” Mayza says. “The Jays hold a special place for me and a special place for my family. We really became part of that city. I know this game's a business and I'm willing to be honest with myself in that I didn't pitch great. When you don't pitch well there's a chance that your job's at risk and they ultimately made the decision to move on.

“I was fortunate that I was able to latch on with the Yankees, make some adjustments and get back here and contribute in any way possible, getting back to the way I know how to pitch and help these guys out.”