As Tanner Scott I got out of the plane, Evan Phillips was waiting to get on board.
It was at the end of June 2019, when Scott and Phillips were in the first stadiums of their MLB career. At the time, everyone was trying to settle like talents of the big league. But the two looked at lightning of potential being eclipsed by inconsistent overall performance.
On the Bad Baltimore Orioles teams, focused more on the reconstruction of their list, he made the two launchers victims of regular mixtures. In 2018 and 2019 only, they were opposed to combined minors 17 times.
“The rotating door,” joked Scott. “It was not fun.”
That day, this turnstile created a fortuitous meeting at Seattle airport. Scott, a left -hander who launched the command problems hard, had received a call to join the team during a road series against the navy. Phillips, who profiled in the same way on the right side of the mound, was sent with another Orioles player.
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By chance, the plane which brought Scott from the Triple-A subsidiary of Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia, was the same operating the theft of Phillips to the minor leagues. In the door area, the two literally passed when Scott came out of the Jetai.
“I remember seeing it and I said to myself” UGH “,” remembers Scott, having come closer to Phillips during their stay in the organization. “I mean, you are happy to see your friend. But you are also: “Dang, these are the guys who are in the rotating door”. »»
Phillips reaction?
“I gave him a little of five years,” he joked, “and said,” Good luck! »»
Six years – and a remarkable amount of personal improvement of everyone – later, Scott and Phillips could still remember very well at the time of the moment Dodgers’ Clubhouse last week, using it as an example to illustrate the path traveled.
In Baltimore, the two were large free in search of opportunity. Now after Phillips’ get up with dodgers And Scott Sign $ 72 million over four years With the team during the offseason, it is again their teammates on a list of mastodon dodgers, which should play late key roles as two of the best current weapons of sports.
“It was not a pleasure (situation),” said Scott, reflecting their common time in Baltimore. “But you have to appreciate the trip you have made.”
Dodgers fans know the trip to Phillips very well, after having seen the 30 -year -old veteran flourish with the club up to a MPM of 2.28 and 44 stops in the last four seasons.
Scott, also 30 years old, arrives in Los Angeles after having experienced a similar rise, transforming in the past two years into an option at the end of the game thanks to an ERA of 2.04 and 34 stops with the Miami Marlins and San Diego Padres.
“He is someone we have watched and admired from a distance over the years and that we have tried to acquire several times”, Managing Director Brandon Gomes said this off -season at the introductory press conference. “Tanner has all the qualities that we appreciate as an organization when you try to provoke a free agent.”
Scott was not always so coveted.
Originally native of Ohio and choice of sixth round in 2014 of the Tiny Howard College in western Texas, the 6-foot Southpaw has long appealed to scouts with its higher MPH from the 90s and its Swing-And-Miss cursor. During his first five MLB seasons with Baltimore from 2017 to 2021, he presented his premium stuff by accumulating 208 stick withdrawals during his first 156 sleeves in the majors.
The problem, at this stage, was his command.
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During this same period, Scott issued 96 steps and found the typing area on only 44% of its locations. After a promising performance in the 2020 season, when he posted an MPM of 1.31 and granted only 12 strokes out of 20 ⅔ sleeves, he regressed in 2021, displaying the fifth first walking rate among the qualified MLB readers (14.7%). When he was exchanged to the Marlins during the next off -season, his career era was 4.73.
“I was still trying to stay (in the majors),” said Scott.
In Miami, Scott started filming a corner. Under the supervision of the veteran of the Marlins who launches the coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr., he reduced his walks and found confidence by attacking the typing area. In June 2022, he began to obtain opportunities as closer to the club, collecting 20 stops this season and 12 others during the Marlins surprise race in the playoffs in 2023, while he also published an MPM of 2.31 (the best of his career for a full season).
Then, last year, he finally released the full potential of his arsenal.
During the first four months of the season, Scott posted an MPM of 1.18 and won his first selection of career stars. On the deadline for trade, he was sent to the Padres de San Diego in a successful agreement, helping them to make the playoffs and push the Dodgers to the edge of elimination in the series of the National League division.
“Fear in the box of the striker against him is certainly real,” said the Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said about Scott, who launched three -sleeves aimlessly in the NLDs and set aside memorable Shohei Ohtani He faced him four times.
“I’m glad it is on our side (now),” added Roberts, comparing the bearded launcher silent to an “assassin” on the mound.
Before landing in San Diego last year, the Dodgers made an effort to acquire Scott themselves; Coming “fairly close” to an agreement with the Marlins on the deadline, according to Gomes, before the Padres rushed.
This winter, the Dodgers have made sure not to miss again. When Scott became a free agent, he said that the Dodgers were the first team that stretched out. And after small tastes of the playoffs in the last two octobres, he wanted to join the defense World Series Champions.
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“I mean, you look at the programming, you look at the pitch staff, it’s going to be fun,” said Scott. “They do a lot in the right way.”
In recent seasons, part of the way of dodgers has been a closer approach by the committee. And while Scott will obtain the “brunt” of backup opportunities now, Roberts said that he had not yet been designated as the closest, the dodgers also looking at Phillips, Blake Treinen,, Michael Kopech and others like ninth round options
Asked about this dynamic this week, Scott said he was on board with the dodgers who choose to use it. Remembering the rotating door (and meetings at Luck Airport) that he endured in Baltimore, he said he was simply happy to present “whenever my name is called”.
“It was difficult, but you have to take advantage of the process,” said Scott. “Because it makes you who you are.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
