DUNEDIN

If he’s learned anything at all from his two years with the Blue Jays, R. A. Dickey understands the fallibility of expectations.

Dickey was part of that 2013 makeover that did not measure up to its pre-season expectations, finishing at 74-88. Again last year the stage seemed to be set for a big season and the team did win 10 more games, but still didn’t break its 21-year playoff drought.

Now, once again, there is a renovated cast of characters that seems capable enough, but ...

“After what happened in the 2013 season, I’ve always been cautious to say ‘Oh, we’re

great,’ ” said the knuckleball pitcher as he stood in front of his spring training locker at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium.

“That was a learning experience. It seems like on paper we’ve made some real improvements. We’ve certainly added some pieces. I hope we’re going to be great, but we still have to find that out.”

While he might be careful with his predictions, there is no doubting Dickey’s continued enthusiasm for the pursuit of a championship.

“It’s funny how it goes,” he reflected. “When the season ends, you’re like ‘I don’t ever want to see a baseball again, forever.’ Then as the off-season goes along, you start getting fevered up again. There’s something innate about it. Your body knows it’s time and you start getting hungry to do it again. The biggest hurdle for me is always family. The hardest thing about it for me is to look at my eight-year-old’s eyes and see them well up with water because I’m leaving for an extended time again.”

Dickey is nothing if not a student. He is constantly refining his approach, seeking the most effective avenue to opening day. In analysing his 2014 pre-season, he came to the conclusion he needs to slow the process down during these late days or February and early March.

“I spent this off-season working to build a good physical foundation with the eye toward taking things slower than I have in the past few years,” he said. “I’m looking to find the right time to peak. Last year I felt like I peaked too early in spring. When I got to Tampa for opening day, I felt like I was a little bit out of gas. This year I’m going to continue to try to figure out the right rhythm to leave spring training feeling like I want to feel.

“I feel like I’m in great shape, and we’ll see, but I think doing it a little bit differently in spring will make a big difference.”

What he’s also finding is that, with age and experience, he’s finding it easier to reconnect with his money pitch, the knuckleball. It took years if tinkering and experimenting to refine his control and command of the knuckler.

“The longer my journey has lasted, the easier it is to find the feel of it,” he said. “In spring it’s kind of touch-and-go the first few weeks. Okay, where’s the release point because it’s such a feel pitch. You can lose that feel but thankfully I have enough experience that I don’t panic now when I do lose it. I know there are just a couple of fine adjustments I need to make to get it back. But you have to make those adjustments in the heat of the moment, in the middle of a game. That’s the thing I have to equip myself to be able to do that again.”

Mastery and maintenance of a knuckleball is a lonely pursuit. There are few trustworthy resources for a knuckleballer to count on, and fewer still are the baseball people who have faith in something they regard as a trick pitch.

“Charlie Huff taught me very early on in my journey as a knuckleballer that I would have to be my own best coach and you have to be able to do it better than everybody else because there is already this stigma out there about knuckleball guys,” he explained. “If it falls apart on you, then it was bound to happen. If you’re a conventional pitcher and it falls apart, it was just a rough day at the office. So you’re always having to make sure you’re consistent and one way to do that is to really be in tune with how the ball feels in your hand and your mechanics.”

As it is every spring, the issue in this run-up to the season will involve Dickey’s catcher. For most of the last five years it has been Josh Thole but that hasn’t stopped others from trying. Two years ago, J.P. Arencibia tried to be that guy with disastrous results. Last year, the Jays tried to give Erik Kratz a crash course in Knuckleball 101 but he didn’t make the grade. This year, the Jays have an elite catcher, Russell Martin, who wants to take a stab at it.

Dickey has a soft spot for Thole, who has developed into a rare trusted receiver of this speciality pitch but the pitcher has made it clear he won’t be part of the decision process

“It’s such a comfort level,” said Dickey, of Thole. “I know when there’s a runner on third base I can throw my best knuckleball and it will be okay. We’ve worked together a long time. We have a good rhythm together. But it’s not like there’s only one guy in the world who can do it. I’m certainly not preaching that there’s one guy in the world who can do it.”

ROMERO NOT YET READY

One familiar name missing from the 64-man Blue Jays spring roster is that of Ricky Romero.

Once a staff ace who signed a five-year, $30.1-million contract extension in 2010, Romero did not pitch in the big leagues last year and appeared in only four games for Toronto in 2013. His slide from prominence began in the ’12 season and he hasn’t recovered.

At the end of last year, he underwent surgery to repair microfractures on both knees and will be in minor-league camp this spring trying to recover his form.

“He still needs a little bit more time to rehab,” said GM Alex Anthopoulos. “He wasn’t going to be ready to go full out and compete right away. Once he’s back in the swing and healthy, if he’s throwing the ball well we can bring him back over here.

“Same with (outfielder Andy) Dirks. If they’re not all the way back and ready, there’s no point in being here early in the training room with 60-some guys in camp, day in, day out.”

Wherever he plays this year, the Jays are on the hook for the final $7.5 million of his contract. Then, if they want to release him, they’ll have to buy out the option year for $600,000.

IZTURIS HAD A PRODUCTIVE YEAR AWAY

Maicer Izturis tried to make the best out of a lousy situation in 2014.

Off to one of his best starts ever, Izturis tore up a knee in mid-April when he slipped on a wet dugout step in Baltimore. The Blue Jays second base candidate missed the entire season.

While his knee recovered, Izturis had some minor surgery to remove bone chips from his throwing shoulder, worked on his conditioning and made the most of a rare opportunity to spend extra time with his family during the summer.

“It was a chance to spend time with my family. I’ve been playing professional baseball for 17 years. With my injury last year, I tried to pull everything together, spend time with my family, do my rehab, fix my shoulder and prepare for this year.”

The freak knee injury happened on April 13.

“I was running before the game, working up a little sweat,” said Izturis. “When I went back to the dugout, the floor was a little bit wet. I slipped on the stairs and my knee was bent the wrong way. I felt something, but not pain. But when I tried to go back up again, that’s when my knee collapsed.”

Izturis remains one of the leading candidates to take the second base job with the Jays this year.

DELABAR HAS NO DOUBTS

Steve Delabar went from an all-star season in 2013 to riding the triple-A buses in 2014.

“We’ll just call it like it is: I sucked last year. I just wasn’t very good,” said the Blue Jays reliever on his first day at training camp.

Now, after a winter of hard work and self-examination, he’s ready for whatever 2015 throws at him.

“I see myself as a guy who is going to help this team,” he said. “I don’t have any doubt that will happen.

“I guess I can consider myself a bounceback candidate, because guys that have a bounceback had a bad year before. I’m up for that award, right? I can thank my last-year self for putting me in this position.”

As brilliant as Delabar was in the first half of 2013, the dominos that would lead to his demotion in mid-2014 began around the same time he was named to the all-star team that year. He went on the DL with shoulder soreness that subsided enough for him to complete the 2013 season but he had enough residual soreness that he was unable to do his normal off-season program.

“I did the program, but not as hard as I would have liked,” he said. “When you don’t go as hard as you need to, you’re only going to get out of it what you put into it. And I couldn’t put as much into it. I didn’t get the full results I was looking for.

“I came here thinking I could pick it up in spring and gain what I needed to get back but that’s hard to do in competition, at least for me. It takes time and I want to be able to sustain it the whole season.”

As a result, Delabar’s velocity and command suffered and so did his performance level.

Now, after spending more than half the season in Buffalo, he’s ready to prove he’s all the way back.

“Right now, I’m back to the mid-90s with the fastball and my arm is working normal,” he said. “As far as command goes, during the off-season I was able to look at some (video) from the past and then what I was doing now. We’re not talking about an overhaul, just small adjustments and I’ve cleaned some things up.

“The frustrating part is when you don’t understand what is causing the issue. Once you identify what the problem is, then you can fix it. Once you figure out what’s wrong, then you can figure yourself out.”

As far as the general angst about the state of the Blue Jays bullpen, Delabar has no concerns.

“We have just a couple of different faces from a couple of years ago when we weren’t talked about at all,” he said. “We were supposed to be the weak link of the team (in 2013) and then we were great. Then we had the hype going into last year and we didn’t live up to it. I guess we’re up and down with this roller coaster. But we’ve got to go out and compete.”