John Smoltz was smiling in front of his locker on Tuesday afternoon as he finally confirmed that he will return to big league pitching on June 25 vs. the Washington Nationals, following a final three-inning rehab stint on Wednesday at McCoy Stadium for the Pawtucket Red Sox.
But what he doesn’t want is fans thinking this is just about him.
“When I signed a long time ago with me being the opportunity of me being a bonus, that’s what I look at it as, a bonus,” Smoltz said. ”I wouldn’t look at it any other way or I wouldn’t come back if I didn’t think I couldn’t be as good as I need to be. This is not a feel-good story.
“This is not something where the Boston Red Sox are not letting accomplish me something because somebody else didn’t. This is about having the stuff to get big league hitters out and to be able to pitch in big games and gain from the experience of having gone through that what seems like 100 times.
“I’m going to pitching tomorrow. Another weather front coming in on Thursday. So, I’m going to have an abbreviated game tomorrow and then next week, looks like Thursday against the Nationals will be my first start."
Here’s the full transcript from Smoltz’s pregame session with reporters.
On starting on June 25 vs. Washington: “So, it gives me plenty of time to figure everything out and get situated and anxiously await my first start."
On whether he’s excited to be a week close: "I’m not too excited yet because I want to get through tomorrow. Tomorrow I want to accomplish a lot of things. Tomorrow I want to do things that typically that we’re fine-tuning me to make sure I’m on target for Thursday and then I’ll start, for the first time in a year, look at film. I’ve been wanting to look at film for a while."
On what he’s working on: "I want to fine tune some pitches, I call them ‘bonus pitches’—my changeup and fine tune everything I’ve wanted to do for a regular start as preparation for making my first start."
On what he thinks of possible six-man rotation with his return: “Oh, I don’t know. That’s not for me to try and figure out."
On facing a National League team upon his return: "That helps, familiarity-wise, but anybody you start against for the first time, you’ve just got to get out there and once you cross the white line, it hopefully will be pretty normal."
On what’s been the most difficult issue for him: "The hardest for me has been just not knowing. That was all along. I don’t really get carried away with things until they actually get there. So, I don’t really get too fired up or too emotional about something you haven’t done in a while. Then once I do, it’s what I’ve been preparing for the whole time."
On joining an already-established rotation: "I look at it as a tremendous luxury. Whether it’s when I signed a long time ago, I looked at it as a bonus, and that’s the way I look at it, a bonus. I wouldn’t come back if I didn’t think I could be as good as I need to be. This is not a feel-good story. This is not something where the Boston Red Sox are allowing me to accomplish somebody else didn’t."
On what coming back means to him: "This is about having the stuff to get big league hitters out and to be able to pitch in big games down the stretch and gain from the experience having gone through that what seems like 100 times. Whether it’s making five starts in a row or making four-out-of-five or whatever it may be that’s going to make this run work.
"That’s what it’s all about because the goal here is not to win a division. The goal here is to win a championship and that’s what they’ve armed themselves with, no pun intended. They’ve got a few arms."
On how he’s improved with each outing: "I feel like each outing has been a little notch in the belt, adding a few pitches here and there. I said the other day I had three-and-a-half pitches working. I’d like to get to four. That’d be a nice round number. I’ve always felt that the more options you have, the better opportunity you have to get hitters out and keep them on their heels."
On the progress he’s made: "That said, I’m more than pleased with the progress that I’ve made. Regardless of what happens tomorrow, tomorrow is going to more of that one last fun start to get things going in a manner that it becomes natural when you get out on the mound. You don’t have to think about it."
On whether he’s feels strong enough: "I’ve pitched a lot of games in rehab. The endurance part is not the problem. It’s whether you can repeat enough pitches under the gun and that’s one thing, as these guys have been seasoned, they’re familiar to it now.
"They left spring training with the same thoughts, the same anxieties and some of them struggled a little bit earlier and they’re rolling now. That’s the goal of every pitcher is to come out, being able to do that and I’m not going to treat it any differently."
On his seven-day rest between a Triple-A start and his June 25 start: "That gives me a nice gap afterwards, a good seven days of rest, which I may be counting those days but I will use those days as well in between to get ready for the Nationals."
On facing major-league hitters: What’s the difference "It’s that cat and mouse game: The familiarity of the hitter, it then becomes pitch selection. When you don’t know the guy, then it becomes a guessing game. But when they’re out there and there are names on the jersey and they’ve got a bat in their hand, then they obviously want to do some damage against you.
"I think, when I’m out there, my goal is to create that aura as long as possible and to make sure people go, ‘Oh, yeah—he hasn’t missed a beat.’ That makes it tougher for them, hopefully.
“This is all new. This is going to be a new, exciting time for me to be able to get hitters out again. I’ll be judged on my statistics, but I think you’ll see, eventually, that with preparation and time that I get to do what I want to do, it’s all going to pay off.
"You can’t see it now because I’ve still been rehabbing, and everyone’s anticipating my first start, but it will pay off down the stretch, I can promise, if I continue to do the things I think I can do.”
On other guys in rotation? “I’ve been in this industry a long time. I’m aware. That’s why this thing has been handled the way that it has—because of the amount of off days, because of the timeframe that these guys have been pitching awfully well, there have been some delays that have been welcomed on everybody’s part. I think there’s going to come some time where rest here and there is going to help and pay off in the end.
"Everything is a mindset. If we went to a four-man rotation today, everybody would be saying the same thing. I really believe this is a scenario that’s going to be a great one, and not one that has much controversy around it."
What drives you; why come back? “I love what I’m doing.”
Back faster than thought post-surgery? “Actually, it’s been a little delayed, a little bump in the road. I knew I could have come back faster. I don’t know how that would have played out. The prognosis of me getting signed, seven, eight, however many months ago, there was this day coming.
"The reality is I’ve just got to go out and do it. And I will. I’ll do it with the same effort that I’ve done before: same intensity, the results, some will be great and some won’t be. I’ll still be the same guy."
On what it means to return: "The only thing, honestly, that it means is that I want to get to the postseason. This team has a great chance of getting there. Anything short of that for me, personally—whether I won one game or 10 games—it was an opportunity to get them over the edge, get them to a spot that was better than before, that has been a great accomplishment.
"Regardless of how this thing plays out, this team has options. That’s what everybody wants. They don’t want to be stuck in a situation where it’s, ‘Oh—how do we get to the next week or the following week?’ I’m more than pleased to be a part of it.”
On the date of June 25 not in stone: "It can move up—it probably won’t. It can be moved back—it probably won’t."
On whether he’s disappointed no Atlanta? "There’s not disappointment. I couldn’t be disappointed about anything at this point, even if somebody told me that I had to wait another month. I’ve worked really hard to get to this point of anticipating another start.
"Regardless of who I pitch again and whatever the outcome is, it’s all part of a process. The baseball season is a long, long time. I’m certainly not going to get caught up, I never have in the past, about individual starts. This is a long journey."
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