Despite a recent slump, Detroit Tigers left-hander Tyler Holton has rebounded thanks to faith — and refusing to get too low or too high.
Tyler Holton was in a slump.
The Detroit Tigers left-hander's ERA was rising — it hit its peak of 4.72 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, one of MLB's worst teams, and one which he gave up four hits and three earned runs while getting a mere four outs. Weeks earlier, he’d given up three hits to Baltimore, worst in the American League East, and another three to the White Sox, worst in the AL Central. He’d consistently given up hist most hits to the worst teams.
Many players would have panicked. Changed their routine. Developed a new superstition. Started working on a new pitch.
But Holton?
“Pulled some weeds the other day at the house, done some more stuff around,” Holton said with a shrug.
He was kidding. Mostly. But as his ERA has come down recently — and as he’s posted a string of zeros in the runs column dating back to June 22, his first game after the Bucs debacle — Holton can’t pinpoint anything he’s done differently to affect such a change.
“It’s baseball,” Holton said. “It’s just the way things go in this game.”
It’s a statement that encapsulates how Holton remains balanced, even in a tough year. Last year, he had a 2.19 ERA, best among AL pitchers with at least 90 innings thrown. He had 77 strikeouts and 17 walks over 94⅓ innings, with a 0.784 WHIP. It was a star performance from the 28-year-old, enough to garner him a tenth-place MVP vote from Toronto Star columnist Mike Wilner.
Holton wasn’t able to replicate that performance this year, though. His overall ERA rose to 5.68 in late June, the worst in his three seasons with the Tigers.
For him, though, it’s all fine. To Holton, baseball is only temporary.
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“It goes back to what my faith is on,” Holton explained. “I don’t put too much in the results for my job just because I know it’s temporary. Whenever I leave the field, I’m a husband. I’m more than just my numbers on the field, and I think that gives you a better perspective of life. I think that does help me perform, not putting too much attachment on my identity as a baseball player.”
That attachment was something Holton broke early in his career. In 2018, while still at Florida State, Holton needed Tommy John surgery for his elbow. For months, he was unable to play the sport that had consumed his life since he was 4 years old. It was a struggle that he got through mostly by relying on faith, though he couldn’t shake his love of the game.
“I was already a Christian, saved by Jesus, at that time,” Holton said. “But there was a struggle because there was still a part of me that I wanted for myself, and that was baseball. I had my identity wrapped up in baseball. … Whenever I was able to surrender my desires and just give it to Jesus and say, ‘Hey, whatever your will is, I want to give this to you and pray through it, however you want me to be used’ and whatnot. I’ve had to try to change those hierarchies of priorities in life.”
Holton found that having things outside of baseball were important to his success. Now, when he’s having a hard time at the ballpark, he leaves it there and goes home to his wife, Storme. He mows the yard or takes their dog, Magnolia, to the park, or, indeed, weeds the yard.
From Tigers manager A.J. Hinch’s perspective, what Holton’s doing is working. Holton didn’t need a major overhaul of his pitching. He just needed to have confidence in what got him to the majors.
“Trying not to recapture what you’ve done before, but just to really go back to your pillars of what made you really successful,” Hinch said on Tuesday, July 8. “For him, it’s command, control, a little bit of deception and a bullishness in the zone to get ahead, to pitch ahead. … I think him maintaining his confidence through a little bit of the peaks and valleys has been one of the big difference makers in getting him on track to be a guy who can be used at any point in the game.”
Holton has that mentality all over.
“You’re gonna have ups, you’re gonna have downs,” Holton said. “Obviously the more ups that you can have, the better things are going to be. You can be happy in so many different ways but happiness will go, just like the money will come and go. Just having a good perspective on this life and what we’re here to do, knowing that it won’t last forever, the lows or the highs.”
Holton seems to be coming out of a low now. If he's right, highs are surely ahead.
Contact Matthew Auchincloss at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit tigers reliver Tyler Holton thrives on staying in the middle
Category: Baseball
