I love my little brother, I love the fact that I can tweet back and forth with him about baseball at any moment of the day. He, like me favorites a team outside of our hometown Tigers first. He is a Royals fan and I am a Rays fan that is currently in hiding. I have been meaning to write a piece about Jesse Chavez for some time now, and while doing research about Chavez I tweeted at my brother the other day and asked him if he remembered Jesse Chavez being a Royal, naturally he didn’t remember Chavez being on the Kansas City roster. Neither did I, and I’m sure the majority of folks reading this have no idea the route and hard work that Jesse Chavez has done over the past few years battling his way up to a starting gig in the Oakland Athletics rotation.
Jesse Chavez was the best pitcher in baseball during the month of April. During the opening month Chavez dazzled with a 1.89 ERA and held batters to a .199 AVG / .242 OBP and WHIP at 0.95. Over his past 6 starts however, Chavez has come back to earth and has a 4.50 ERA with batters hitting .291 over those 6 starts. The up and down this season is nothing new for Jesse Chavez. He has had one heck of a road to get to where he is now. Chavez has been with 6 teams in the past 6 years and has been longing for a chance to prove he belongs. And with Oakland, he belongs. Even with the recent struggles, Jesse still owns some very good 2014 numbers – 80 innings pitched, 3.04 ERA / 3.59 FIP /3.44 xFIP and a 1.1 WAR. Chavez has a 8.33 K/9 rate and a 1.23 WHIP.
The Athletics picked up Chavez in 2012 after he had been with Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Kansas City and Toronto. During his baseball career, he has spent nearly all of his time in Triple A , he has been designated for assignment 4 separate times, traded 3 times and was never considered a true starting pitcher. After the Athletics had some injury trouble at the beginning of this year, Chavez earned his way into the starting rotation with a marvelous spring and even the impressions he left on his manager Bob Melvin in the later parts of the 2013 season. Melvin said this about his right hander in a May press conference – “We saw indications last year at the end of the season,” It was a relief role, a different role, but once he got the opportunity to start in spring training you saw a guy who was very focused and was going to take advantage of that opportunity. It’s a great story and a testament to his desire … He was going to get an opportunity to roll with it, and he’s done exactly that.”.
I watch a ton of baseball, like way more than I probably should, and I remember watching Chavez in spring training and being so impressed with his work ethic and his desire to do big things, I was so impressed that I went out on a big limb and wrote a piece in April believing that the Athletics should not worry if Chavez has to take on an extended role. My respect level for Jesse Chavez really came full bloom when he did an interview in the early part of May on Christopher Russo’s high heat television show. Before you read any more of this column, please watch this video of that interview.
Chavez seems like about as much of a stand up guy as you can find in the majors. He knows that he has been given a chance and he is taking it one start, one inning, one batter at a time and has clearly helped the Oakland Athletics in becoming the best team in the American League as we sit here in early June. Jesse made it clear in this interview that nothing has ever been handed to him and he will and has done whatever that his team has asked him to do. One of the most telling parts of his interview with Russo was when they talked about Chavez’s wife and how she is still working full time. They take nothing for granted and refuse to change their hard working roots. I love that, I love his story. And it really doesn’t matter to me if Chavez bombs the rest of the year, he has helped his team and proven to all of the teams that passed on him previously that he can help a team and be a major factor in a team’s success.
In closing, I was reading an article done with Chavez and Oakland team reporter just this morning, they were talking about the recent struggles that Chavez has had and if he fears a “demotion” to the bullpen. Chavez continued his stay the course routine with these comments – “It’s not in me to give up,” Chavez said. “Adversity’s only going to make you a better person and a better player. To go through what I’ve gone through has kind of helped me out, to where tonight is not going to affect me tomorrow, because I’ve been through worse. “It’s something I don’t ever let bother me any more, and I think that was a big problem before. I would let it bother me.” “It makes you stronger,” he said. “If it doesn’t, you probably should walk away, because this game isn’t built on feelings. It’s built on adversity, perspiration, just trying to get through it and succeed.”
In a league where we have had recent clown actions from Manny Machado, PED use from star players like Nelson Cruz and Ryan Braun and players looking for money over winning, it sure is refreshing and easy to root for a guy like Jesse Chavez. He may never be as popular as Robinson Cano or David Ortiz but I guarantee you that Chavez will continue to work as hard if not harder than any other player in the league. How can you not respect and root for that?
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