Swanson back where he belongs following on, off-field challenges

TORONTO -- Erik Swanson has taken a long road to get back where he belongs.

Here he is again, back with the Blue Jays for the stretch run after six months that have challenged him as a pitcher and a person. It all feels so light again, like it’s supposed to, but nothing about Swanson’s season has played out like anyone expected.

Optioned to Triple-A in late May with a 9.22 ERA, Swanson, who was coming off three seasons as a dominant reliever in the big leagues, was suddenly getting hammered.

“That was tough,” Swanson said prior to the Blue Jays’ 7-3 loss to the Tigers on Saturday at Rogers Centre. “It’s never easy to get optioned for anybody, but coming off the previous few seasons I’ve had and the success that I’ve had, it was definitely a humbling experience. It was a punch to the gut, for sure. I knew it was coming. I’m not a naive person. I knew I wasn’t pitching well. In fact, I was pitching pretty [crappy].”

This wasn’t a quick fix, though.

“It took a little bit longer than I would have liked,” Swanson said. “In fact, I went there and probably pitched worse than I did here, right out of the gate.”

Control was still an issue for Swanson when he landed in Buffalo. On some pitches, he was flying open and losing his mechanics altogether, piling up uncompetitive pitches and the walks that came along with them. Other times, he found too much of the plate, which brought the home runs.

Over a stretch of three outings from June 18 to June 23, Swanson allowed 11 runs over just two innings. Where was the real Erik Swanson, the eighth-inning guy with a devastating splitter? His stay at the hotel down the road from Buffalo’s Sahlen Field stretched longer … and longer … and longer.

“It’s difficult, right? To start the year here, I wasn’t having success and I looked at it as a bump in the road. Then I went to Buffalo and I hit that point again,” Swanson said. “It was another bump in the road, but it was a really long [freaking] road and I kind of just took a step back. I tried to enjoy the process of getting back to where I was instead of putting pressure on myself. I felt like I needed to be here to help us win games and I wasn’t doing that when I was here.”

The Blue Jays didn’t need to see dominance from Swanson, though. He’s earned the right to bounce back up to the big leagues as soon as he’s shown enough encouraging signs, which he did leading into the All-Star break.

Swanson is beloved in the Blue Jays’ organization, too. That’s why, when he was optioned, a group consisting of manager John Schneider, pitching coach Pete Walker and GM Ross Atkins met with him at the club’s hotel in Chicago. Those three, as much as anyone outside of Swanson himself, have been waiting for this day when he’s back.

“It’s a good time for him to get back here and be him,” Schneider said. “A guy like him, when you’re down there so long, I think you can start to go a little crazy.”

Swanson’s season has been unlike any other player’s, too. In late February, Swanson’s 4-year-old son, Toby, was hit by a car and airlifted to a hospital. Those were emotional days at the Blue Jays’ complex in Dunedin, Fla., as his teammates visited Swanson and his wife, Madison.

Real life took over. As Schneider said that day in February, emotional in the dugout before a Grapefruit League game, “Baseball is just baseball.”

When Swanson returned to the team and Toby was released from the hospital, he landed on the IL with an elbow injury soon after, which disrupted his ramp-up for the start of the season.

“I think after the initial stretch he had in the hospital, I was so excited and gung-ho to get back that I didn’t allow myself the proper time to move back into it, which I think is why I got hurt right away,” Swanson said. “It’s the competitive side of us. Being back at the field was good for me and it was good to be around everybody again, so that’s what I wanted. Looking back, I probably could have taken a few extra days and eased back into it.”

Thankfully, Toby is “doing awesome” and “back to being a kid.” His dad is right back where he should be, too, and gave the Blue Jays a clean inning on just seven pitches Saturday, his first big league appearance since May 27.

“It was so great to come into the clubhouse Friday and see everybody again,” Swanson said. “This feels like home.”