Cincinnati Reds pitcher Homer Bailey hoping to put frustration behind him

GOODYEAR, Ariz. – Homer Bailey’s look answers the question. And the answer is:

“What the blank do you think?”

The question was about how frustrating the last 3 ½ years have been.

“It gets very frustrating,” he says. “I can’t think of any other way to say it other than it’s frustrating.”

Call it the Curse of the Contract. Call it rotten luck. But whatever you call it, the last 3 ½ seasons have been miserably frustrating for Bailey.

Three surgeries, countless hours of rehab, spotty results on the occasions he was healthy enough to pitch.

The Reds are hoping that this is the year that Bailey is finally the same guy to whom they gave that six-year, $105 million contract. They’ve hoped that before – as has Bailey.

“I felt like it was all behind me several times,” Bailey said.

But Bailey, the 31-year-old right-hander, did end the 2017 season on a healthy note and had some success.

“I don’t know if putting up a 6 (ERA) counts as success,” Bailey said.

He went 6-9 with a 6.43 ERA in 18 starts, but he got better as the year wound down.

Consider: He was 4-6 with an 8.44 ERA and walked 50 in 53 ⅓ innings in his first 12 starts. He was 2-3 with 3.58 ERA and walked 12 in the 37 ⅓ innings in his last seven starts.

“It started to come together at the end,” Bailey said. “When you take the better part of four years off and then try to do it ... And still the first game was in June, even then you’re only five months out of surgery.

“I think it will be a different year this year. The biggest thing is staying healthy.”

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If Bailey can stay healthy and be something close to the guy he was in 2014, the Reds’ rotation has a chance to be much better than last year.

Bailey had his third surgery just before spring training started last year. The surgery was relatively minor (bones spurs were removed). Bailey made his season debut June 24.

“The stuff was there,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “When we’re talking about his tough outings, the command of his stuff wasn’t there with the consistency that it had been in the years before the injuries.”

“Going into 2014 before he got hurt, he was a guy who could really pound fastballs to locations with really good accuracy. The other pitches really are accessory pitches because he really pitches off his fastball. Last year, he was making a lot of fastball location mistakes. He got hurt with that.”

Price referred to 2014. Bailey signed the big deal on Feb. 20 of that year. For 23 starts, he looked to be worth the money. He was 9-5 with a 3.71 ERA. He beat the Cubs 4-0 on Aug. 4. He missed his next start. He had season-ending surgery to repair the flexor tendon on Sept. 4.

No one knew it then, but the nightmare had begun. Bailey is 8-13 with a 6.39 ERA in 26 starts since. The fact that he earned $47 million in that span has been a topic on social media and talk radio since.

There are two years and an option remaining on the contract. If Bailey can help get the rebuild into the final stages, he’ll be looked at a lot differently in Redsland.

He has a realistic chance of doing that this year.

“It’s different from the last couple of years,” Bailey said. “I haven’t had a surgery in a couple of months.”

Bailey’s fastball averaged 93.5 mph last year, according to fangraphs.com. That’s in line with 2012 and ’13, his best years. But until the command came, he struggled.

“You remember the no-hitters when he was throwing 97, 98 the last three innings or so, just blowing fastballs up in the zone past hitters,” Price said. “However, I remember a shutout he pitched in Pittsburgh, he managed the game with lesser stuff. He was just really good with his command. He can do it both ways. I don’t think he has to have his upper-level velocity to be successful. I'm really looking for the return of his command.”

Command can be the last thing to return after Tommy John surgery.

“It’s different for everybody. Homer spends a lot of time – ever since I’ve been here and his minor league days as well – on the delivery. Some guys' deliveries are more challenging to repeat. Some have a more advance feel. I couldn’t put my finger on it for Homer. It’s just his command wasn’t as good as we have seen.”

Bailey has found it takes time to come back.

“Ninety-five percent of that is the lack of mound time over the course of those years,” Bailey said. “Then you’re still five months out from surgery, you’re a year out from surgery from Tommy John, you’re two years out from flexor mass repair.

“It’s a lot of time missed. Then you’re getting back into the five-day thing, then you’re getting deep into games. I think if I had only gone five innings the numbers would be different. It was sixth or trying to finish out the seventh where I got in trouble.”

Getting ready for that begins in the offseason.

“I think the repetition, the ability to have a normal offseason,” Price said, “a regular long-toss plan, having a normal spring training will go a long way in him regaining his status as one of better starters in our mix.”