The Long Way To The Mound
And what one player's comeback tells us about Shohei Ohtani's season
Welcome to Warning Track Power, a weekly newsletter of baseball stories and analysis grounded in front office and scouting experiences and the personalities encountered along the way.
Baseball writers celebrated a comeback story this week.
Anthony Gose, who was selected by the Phillies in the second round of the 2008 Draft, made it back to the big leagues — reincarnated as a left-handed reliever.
Gose played in parts of five Major League seasons as an outfielder (primarily in center), but he received more attention for his prospect status and the trades he was part of.
In 2010, Gose was ranked as the Phillies’ sixth best prospect by Baseball America. (It’s worth noting that none of Philadelphia’s Top 10 from that year made major impacts during their careers; catcher Travis d’Arnaud has had the most success of any on the list.)
The Blue Jays acquired Gose in July 2010 as part of a three-team deal that sent Roy Oswalt from Houston to Philly.
Entering the 2012 campaign, Gose was Toronto’s #2 prospect, trailing only — go figure — Travis d’Arnaud. (Noah Syndergaard was seventh.)
Gose debuted with the Jays in 2012, but never saw consistent playing time in the big leagues until the 2015 season with the Tigers. That year, he patrolled center with Yoenis Cespedes and J.D. Martinez on the corners. A below average slash line of .254 / .321 / .367 motivated the Tigers to acquire Cameron Maybin that offseason, and Gose’s time as a big league outfielder came to an end the following year.
In 2011, I saw Gose play in the Arizona Fall League. In my report, I called him “a future Gold Glove centerfielder with a plus arm.” While I was betting on his bat to develop, I should have paid more attention to that left arm.
Interestingly enough, the report that Baseball America published leading up to the 2008 Draft focused on Gose mainly as a pitcher. His fastball and body type drew comparisons to seven-time All-Star closer Billy Wagner. While there were concerns about the health of the player’s shoulder leading up to the draft, the closing lines of BA’s report state:
Gose has never consistently shown enough hitting ability to convince scouts he can hit professional pitching. Severe doubts about his bat make it most likely that Gose will be drafted and signed as a pitcher.
Baseball is a funny game.
This past Monday, at the age of 31 and 13 years after he was drafted as an outfielder, Anthony Gose made his Major League debut as a pitcher. Here’s a great video that compares his arm strength from the outfield to his fastball velocity on the mound.
It certainly seems like there will be more opportunities for Gose out of the bullpen, and it’ll be fun to watch how he figures into the Indians’ plans for next season. A lefty who throws 100 tends to get noticed.
All the attention around Gose made me appreciate the season that Shohei Ohtani has had even more.
Ohtani has tired lately, and he’s still hitting .256 / .361 / .591 with 45 home runs while posting a 9-2 record with a 3.18 ERA over 123 IP. And the industry got excited because Anthony Gose threw one-and-a-third innings!
Look, I’m excited too. It’s a remarkable revival that says as much about Gose’s makeup, desire, and mental strength as it does his athletic abilities. As a society, we should celebrate the perseverance and commitment required for that kind of reinvention at the highest level of any craft.
So think about what that journey — from outfielder to relief pitcher — tells us about an everyday player who has started 22 games on the mound while also amassing 600 plate appearances.
Some of you may be surprised to learn that nine months of writing on Substack hasn’t earned me the privilege of voting for AL MVP. It does, however, allow for my two cents.
For the outstanding season that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has put together, it’s impossible for me to fathom that anyone other than Ohtani could win the award. He is one of the best hitters in the league and one of the best pitchers.
There was a week or two earlier this season when the game itself seemed to request everyone’s attention simply to make sure that we were paying attention to what Ohtani was doing on a nightly basis.
If we’ve somehow grown accustomed to the ease with which Ohtani fills two demanding roles, we should remember the long journey of Anthony Gose. If we’ve somehow taken Ohtani for granted, we should realize that he is human — he’s cooled off dramatically as of late; in August, he slashed .202 / .345 / .404 — and this kind of performance isn’t guaranteed.
Is it conceivable for a league MVP to post second-half numbers that look like this: .222 / .357 / .435?
(As a point of reference, Ohtani’s first half was: .279 / .364 / .698!)
Well, his pitching numbers have remained impressive. In fact, in 56.1 IP in the second half, he’s struck out 59 while walking only nine.
Guerrero Jr. may end up leading the league in batting average and homers — and he may help his team secure a Wild Card berth — but that’s only half the story when it comes to Ohtani.
Even as he struggles offensively down the stretch, we’re watching an athlete redefine what’s possible for future generations of ballplayers.
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