DUNEDIN, FLA.—Sergio Santos’s reality in baseball was much the same as a lot of young fathers starting out in the working world with a family to provide for.

In Santos’s case, he was a highly touted infielder with a tremendous throwing arm, but one whose inconsistency at the plate kept him pinned in the minor leagues.

Then came the switch.

Santos tried pitching, and with an arm that could throw 97 miles per hour, he was able to successfully convert from the infield to the bullpen. Within three years, he was a major-league closer and providing for his family the way he had envisioned when the Diamondbacks selected him 27th overall in the 2002 draft.

“I didn’t want to say, “Should I have tried it (pitching)?” Santos said as Blue Jay pitchers and catchers officially reported for spring training Wednesday. “When I started pitching, I made the commitment to do it all out. I had a wife and kid back home and I was in the minor leagues. Looking back at it, I’m so glad I did it.”

Santos arrives in camp with the undisputed closer’s role in his grip. He was acquired from the Chicago White Sox in an off-season trade, and while Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos took heat for his off-season performance in some corners, the Santos trade was quietly rated as the best deal of the off-season by several expert sources.

It was a surprise when Santos became available; he had a breakout season in Chicago in 2011, converting 30 of 35 save opportunities, striking out 92 batters in 63.1 innings and limiting opposing batters to a .181 average.

He’d signed a three-year contract in Chicago, but with the White Sox rebuilding their organization, he was moved for pitching prospect Nestor Molina.

He appears to have the right stuff for Jays fans who saw their team tie for the American League lead with 25 blown saves last season. He’s personable, already a media favourite for his candid speech in front of cameras and definitely a head-turner with his good looks and incredibly detailed tattoos.

Now the 28-year-old is right where he envisioned when, a year after he was drafted, he was ranked No. 37 among baseball’s top 100 prospects.

But as a hitter and a position player, Santos began to realize he was moving backwards from that dream.

The D-Backs traded Santos to the Jays along with Troy Glaus in 2006, but aside from a 20-home run season at Triple-A Syracuse, he was not advancing in Toronto’s system or developing as a player.

That set the tone for three seasons of doubt in which he was peddled between the Giants, Twins and White Sox. It was the keen eye of White Sox player development director Buddy Bell that led Santos to consider a switch to pitching.

“Buddy Bell brought it up to me at first with the White Sox and it kind of blew me back. . . . I was a shortstop/third baseman so what was that all about?” Santos recalled.

“I thought I could compete with anybody but what surprised me was the consistency with which the guys in the big leagues could do it all. I couldn’t do it consistently and I couldn’t figure out why.

“If I wasn’t making any changes, then it was clear to me I was going to continue that way. So I talked to Buddy and I said, ‘Hey, can I make it up there to the big leagues right away? We were talking and I told him I had a wife and kids, I have to have it going on.”

At first, his conversion met with the expected obstacles. While Santos could throw hard, he couldn’t consistently get his off-speed pitches over for strikes.

That had been the story with other converted players, including Dave Stieb, an outfielder in the Jays organization before becoming one of the franchise’s all-time great pitchers; Casey Janssen, who converted from college outfielder to pitcher; and Anthony Gose, who actually went the other way, converting from a hard-throwing pitcher to a promising outfielder.

Surprisingly, Santos said he was able to overcome those obstacles without any mechanical changes to his delivery. He became a 30-save closer by emulating other pitchers, trying “different things” and ironing out his flaws with repetition.

“Don Cooper (the White Sox pitching coach) . . . he was so non-mechanical . . . I don’t think we talked about it once,” Santos said. “I watched other pitchers and what they were doing and I tried to emulate that.”

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Santos said it was somewhat “weird” returning to Dunedin six years after that trade from Arizona brought him to the quiet Florida town for the first time.

He is certainly a different player and person.

“I’m just so glad I did everything that I did with pitching,” said Santos, who is expecting a third child. “I think the bullpen was the way to go for me. I like one inning, get in there, get it done and get out.”