Ken Giles opens up, accepts help to improve mental game

TORONTO — Ken Giles arrived in Toronto with a split reputation. At his best, Giles is known as one of the best closers in baseball. At his worst, he’s known as the guy who punched himself in the face after blowing a game against the Yankees in May.

Now 28 and with his third organization, it sounds like Giles has finally taken a deep breath. Instead of turning inward on himself for another winter of solitary training, Giles has opened up.

“Normally I’m just one of those lone wolves that goes about what I need to do and what I think is best for myself,” Giles said. “This year, I came out of my shell and relied on others to help me get better at something I needed help with.

The edge that made Giles great was also holding him back, which is common for closers. Few situations in pro sports rely on a player’s mental strength, and their ability to wash away the previous game, like the ninth inning in the majors.

Giles spoke with old coaches, his agent, his parents, and his wife, Estela, who has played softball at the NCAA, professional, and international levels. He knew that save situations were his comfort zone, but stepping outside of that, he felt shaky. Now, the goal is to widen that comfort zone, or remove the hard lines he’s drawn between these zones altogether.

“I think that’s the hardest thing to realize. If you need help with something you should ask for that help,” Giles said. “That’s probably the hardest thing I had to do this year, but so far, so good.”

Giles enters the year in a unique position as a potential top-end closer on a team that isn’t expected to compete late into the season. These are not uncharted waters for him after coming up with the Phillies, though, which included a 100-loss season that Giles starred in.

The Blue Jays have two years of team control remaining with Giles, who will earn $6.3 million in 2019. Four months with a sub-three ERA would make him one of the deadline’s hottest trade chips, but there are so many variables between now and July. He’s also looking at a different style of team than the one he joined in 2018, with manager Charlie Montoyo now at the helm.

Just don’t expect to see him opening games.

“I’m not going to answer that question,” Giles said with a smile when asked about the opener role, before proceeding to answer. “I don’t think I’d be very good at it, honestly. I’m going to stick with what I’m really good at.”

Going into this season with players like Giles, Russell Martin, and Troy Tulowitzki on the roster, it looked like the Blue Jays were storing their gunpowder next to their gasoline. These are players used to winning, so there was some worry over how the locker room would fit together in a rebuilding season.

Some of those potential kinks were ironed out via transactions, but to his credit, Giles is saying all of the right things. The true test of his new mindset won’t come until his first blown save of the season, of course, but much like his offseason, Giles is taking a more wholistic view of 2019.

“Any way I can seal a ‘W’, that’s going to be great for the confidence of the young kids coming up, knowing that they got a ‘W’, had a great day, and all learned something from the experience,” Giles said. “That’s all that matters to me.”