TORONTO — Erik Swanson had been demoted before, but this time felt different.
The right-hander had enjoyed nearly three straight seasons as an effective major-league reliever, so when his struggles led the Toronto Blue Jays to option Swanson to triple-A Buffalo on May 28, it was a new feeling.
“Yeah, for sure,” Swanson said. “I had been in the big leagues for the last few years and had a lot of success. So, I think to now be in a situation where [I needed] to get back to what I was doing before, it’s tough.”
He’s back in the majors now, having been recalled on Friday for the Blue Jays’ first game out of the all-star break, but reflecting on the past few months brings about a noticeable pain on Swanson’s face.
The right-hander entered the season as an integral member of the Blue Jays bullpen. He’d been relied upon in leverage situations since joining the club in the November 2022 trade that sent Teoscar Hernandez to Seattle and the Blue Jays needed that to continue in 2024.
However, Swanson endured a difficult spring training when his four-year-old son, Toby, spent time in the hospital after being struck by a vehicle. He also missed time in camp with right forearm inflammation that delayed the start of his campaign and when he returned in mid-April, the right-hander was hit hard.
Swanson had trouble executing his fastball and splitter and was falling behind hitters too often. He’d leave pitches in the heart of the plate and was punished harshly for it, with hitters batting .323 and slugging .661 against Swanson over his first 17 games, a span in which he posted a 9.22 ERA.
“I’ll be the first to admit that I was not throwing the ball well,” said Swanson. “Needed to go down and work on some things and I think just being there and being able to have that reset and really focus on getting my delivery back to the way it needs to be was a good experience.”
Initially, it wasn’t a good experience for Swanson and the reset took much longer than he’d hoped.
He was shelled routinely by opposing hitters with the nadir coming on June 23 during a game against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders when the right-hander allowed six runs while recording just one out.
That forced Swanson to dig deep and fight with himself at times to remain positive.
“I know my capabilities,” he said. “I know that you don’t just lose that overnight. So, I knew that I can get back to myself. My plan is to play this game for a very long time and to be able to do that, you got to get back to work and try to figure out what your struggles were.”
Swanson worked closely with Bisons pitching coach Drew Hayes and was routinely in contact with Blue Jays manager John Schneider and pitching coach Pete Walker as well as the front office. The group collectively identified changes to his mechanics such as driving downward off the mound instead of flying open.
The right-hander worked at that and finally felt something click during a game in late June against Syracuse.
“The first thing I noticed, right away, was I eliminated some of the bad misses that I’ve been having — the ones that were non-competitive up and out of the zone, arm side,” said Swanson. “I just felt like I was able to drive the ball a lot better and then building off that after the next few, I was starting to be able to put the ball where I wanted.”
The Blue Jays noticed such changes and after a string of effective triple-A outings to open July, Swanson was summoned to the major-league club on Friday.
“He’s just in a better spot with his command again,” Schneider said this weekend. “I mean, I don’t think he’s Greg Maddux by any means, but things that we wanted him to be better at in terms of splitter and fastball definitely has gotten to the point to where we think he can help us. So, excited to have him back and hopefully he’s close to the Swanny that we’ve known since we acquired him.”
The manager plans to initially use Swanson in lower-leverage roles but expressed hope that the 30-year-old could “work his way back up to pitch in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning.”
To that end, Swanson showed progress during Saturday’s game against the Detroit Tigers by tossing a perfect seventh frame on just seven pitches. The Blue Jays were trailing at the time in what would eventually be a 7-3 loss, yet nonetheless, it’s a step in the right direction for Swanson.
His 2024 campaign has not been ideal, but the right-hander is beginning to see some meaning in the struggle.
“Obviously, it’s not an experience coming into the season that I thought I would have, or wanted to have,” said Swanson. “But hopefully that’s in the rear-view mirror and something we can look past.
“At some point we can look back up at this moment and say that it was for the better.”