GOODYEAR, AZ. — He speaks softly, slips around the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse with a light foot, almost unnoticed, pretty much speaking only when spoken to first.

Isn’t that the way with most Quiet Assassins?

Nearly every year Mike Leake is The Forgotten Man, a guy who goes about his work day like an invisible man. He is a wisp.

"He doesn’t puff his chest out and need to be noticed," said manager Bryan Price. "That’s why we think it is important that he knows we appreciate him internally — clubhouse, coaches, the manager’s office and upstairs. He is not that pomp and circumstance guy that needs to be front and center."

Leake is listed at 5-foot-10 — they must measure him standing on a concrete block — and his face is that of a fuzzless teenager.

It is why hitters feel comfortable in the batter’s box against him. He doesn’t throw hard, he is always around the plate and hitters believe, "I can hit this guy."

No, they can’t. They are comfortable in the box, but when the day is done they are shaking their heads over a comfortable 0-for-4.

Leake was 14-7 with a 3.37 earned run average in 2013. He pitched the same way last year with a comparable 3.70 earned run average but he was 11-13 in 33 starts, mostly due to feeble and lean run support.

And he never complained about it. He just did what Price says he does. "He sets great goals. We all set goals differently and his goals are to take the ball every fifth day and give us a chance to win," said Price. "He isn’t particular about how many innings he is going to pitch or how many strikeouts he is going to get."

That’s exactly why Leake doesn’t set goals for wins or strikeouts.

"Last year was my favorite year," he said, picking the 11-13 season over the 14-7 season. "I finally got past the 200 innings mark and that was the goal for me. Now it is another goal, a consistent goal to pitch more than 200 innings and make more than 300 starts every year.

"Those are my only two goals, pretty much all that I can control and even 200 innings and 30-some starts can be out of your control due to outside circumstances," he said. "I just want to compete every inning. It is more fun to compete than give up, even when things aren’t going good."

Price said Leake has been one of the better pitchers so far this spring during bullpens and live batting practice.

"Leake has been terrific," said Price. "He is always so prepared. He has created and cultivated a sense of knowing how to prepare. He is professional with his preparation.

"He loves baseball and has always worked hard," Price added. "Spending so much time with Bronson Arroyo when he was here didn’t hurt him at all, because they wee connected at the hip in their four years together."

Leake spent the winter tinkering — landscaping, putting up a shed in the backyard and fine-tuning his change-up.

"Each year I try to get my change-up better and better. It’s the toughest pitch for me to get right," he said. "I have trouble getting it to where I want it to get. Hopefully this year I will be even closer to where I want it. It might not be there yet, but I’m going in the right direction with it."

Leake is one of the Three Men Standing, the remnants of the starting staff that lost 40 percent of its membership when the Reds traded Mat Latos and Alfredo Simon. Leake, Johnny Cueto and Homer Bailey are the leftovers.

"It is difficult to see what might happen and it isn’t the ideal situation to put yourself in by losing two of your top starters," said Leake. "But we have a handful of guys who can fill in for us — they are going to have to do it — and it is up to them to help us out.

"Maybe they can’t necessarily fill what Latos and Simon did, but they just need to be their own person and be solid for us and do their best to make every start for us," he said, referring to candidates like Anthony DeSclafani, Jason Marquis, Paul Maholm, Raisel Iglesias, David Holmberg, Dylan Axelrod and Michael Lorenzen.

But every fifth day the Reds can count on The Quiet Assassin to speak softly and carry a big workload.