How Blue Jays reliever Trent Thornton regained trust in his arm to put up promising early results

HOUSTON — Trent Thornton is no longer pitching with his arm in the back of his mind.

A year ago, the right-hander was still working his way back from the elbow surgery he underwent to remove bone spurs in 2020, which cost him most of that season. Throughout his rocky 2021 season, Thornton pitched to a 4.78 ERA while bouncing between the majors and the minors.

Part of his struggles stemmed from a physical problem. Coming off the surgery, Thornton felt his arm wasn’t getting to its full extension, and for a pitcher who spins the ball as much as he naturally does, that was a significant problem. For instance, without his arm fully straightening out, he couldn’t get the typical late bite he was accustomed to getting on his curveball.

“I think it started off being a little bit more physical and then it got in my head, which that’s my own fault,” he said this weekend. “But I kind of flushed last year down the toilet. Trying to be a better version of myself this year.”

It’s still early but the results have been good for Thornton thus far. Armed with a pair of new and improved breaking pitches and his renewed confidence in his arm, Thornton has pitched to a 1.00 ERA through five games and nine innings. He pitched three scoreless against the Houston Astros this weekend in a series the Blue Jays won (2-1) but failed to sweep after losing Sunday’s game 8-7 in walk-off fashion in extra innings. Astros rookie Jeremy Peña hit a two-run home run off Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano, his first blown save of the season, ending his consecutive streak at 31 saves.

Thornton’s performance against the Astros came with a bit of added satisfaction since they were the team that drafted him before trading him to the Blue Jays for Aledmys Díaz ahead of the 2019 season.

“I definitely can admit that I get a little extra amped up, fired up playing the Astros, the team that drafted me,” he said. “I have a little chip on my shoulder, as well.”

Part of Thornton’s early-season success stems from having his arm back fully healthy again. In the offseason, the 28-year-old worked with a physical therapist twice a week in Charlotte, N.C., where he lives in the offseason. With the arm feeling good this season, he said he’s in a “better headspace.”

“It was just more so proving to myself that I can overcome different adversities and work on being more mentally tough,” he said. “I think that was a big thing for me is not letting highs get too high and lows getting too low, trying to stay even keel, for the most part, just being able to make that adjustment and like being in a better headspace helps that tremendously.”

With his arm back to normal, he said he’s able to get the late action on his curveball again. On average, his curveball is spinning more (3,069 rpm) this year than last year (3,046 rpm). He uses the pitch mostly against left-handed batters and he’s only surrendered one hit off it, which came Sunday against Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez. Last season, the opposition hit .265 and slugged .551 against it.

Meanwhile, Thornton has redesigned his slider, using a new grip and creating a new shape. Why?

“My slider last year was poo,” he said, rather succinctly.

Indeed, it wasn’t a good pitch for him. He used it only 8.1 percent of the time, but batters hit .333 and slugged .667 off it.

During spring training, Thornton worked with Blue Jays pitching strategist David Howell, who suggested the new slider. Thornton threw it a couple of times in catch play then took it into a spring game and it clicked almost immediately. With Howell, he’s been refining it ever since.

“(He) and I’ve just been every single day, trying to perfect that and make it better and better each day. And I think that’s a big focus for me,” Thornton said.

Thornton was reluctant to share too many details on the new pitch, which he’s thrown 33.8 percent of the time, but the publicly available statistics paint a picture of how effective it’s been for him so far. He’s thrown it primarily to right-handed batters, who have just two singles off it. He’s not throwing it as hard as he did last year, averaging 81.2 mph, but it’s getting more swings-and-misses — 31.6 whiff rate before Sunday compared to 25.8 percent last year — and has been his best put-away pitch. Thornton said the type of swings he’s getting on his slider have been encouraging and it’s given him the out-pitch he needs against right-handers that he lacked last season.

“It’s also how it feels coming out of my hand, like I can tell immediately the shape of the pitch just off of how it comes out, pretty quickly I know, ‘Oh, that’s going to be a good one,’ and then see the results,” he said.

Manager Charlie Montoyo pointed to Thornton’s improved slider and curveball as a reason for his early success. If he can get his walks down — he’s walking 4.00 per nine innings — he can be even better.

“His breaking pitches are sharper. His fastball is locating a little bit better, he could still do better, but his breaking things have been really good — like, really good,” Montoyo said. “I get excited when he pitches good because every good team has that guy that can pitch behind and can give you a chance or you know in the fifth inning, tie game, that’s what he did (Friday). He gave us a chance. And if he can become that guy, that’s a plus for our team.”

Bullpen coach Matt Buschmann said that with Thornton’s successfully landing his breaking pitches for strikes early in the count, he can focus on just letting his fastball rip and land that for strikes. His fastball velocity on average is 92.8 mph, a little below where he was last year (93.9 mph) but that’s probably a product of still working up to his peak velocity early in the season.

Thornton’s path with the Blue Jays has been winding to this point. He led the team in innings pitched in 2019 as a starter. He missed most of the 2020 season after the surgery then moved to an ill-defined bullpen role last year, where he opened and pitched in short and long relief roles as well as in high and low leverage situations. This season, Blue Jays pitching coaches told him that he’ll be a multi-inning reliever.

“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I’m as prepared as possible for this role, so it’s a little bit easier mentally,” he said.

The Blue Jays will have to reduce their number of relievers from 10 to eight by the beginning of next month. With Hyun Jin Ryu on the injured list and Ross Stripling taking his place in the rotation, Thornton is the top candidate to fill that long relief role. If he keeps pitching as well as he’s been to start the season, he’ll be a valuable pitcher to have in the bullpen.

And without his cranky arm, Thornton is more at ease mentally and feeling like himself on the mound.

“Not having your arm in the back of your head definitely plays a big part where you’re almost afraid to step on in some times and stuff like that,” he said. “Where this year, I’m not going to let that be an issue at all. I just try to be as conscientious of my routine and my prep as I can and just stick with that because our trainers are top-notch and they do a great job and just trust them and trust my body and my preparation.”

(Photo: Joshua Bessex / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)