“There’s no guarantees,” Kluber said, “but a few of us have that experience now, which hopefully we can use not only for ourselves but to help out the guys who weren’t here last year.”

As dry as Kluber is off the mound, his pitches all but sizzle as they zig and zag from his hand. Kluber throws a two-seam fastball that runs away from left-handed batters, a cutter that moves in on them, a looping curveball at roughly slider speed (around 84 miles an hour) and, more often than he has since 2013, a changeup, too.

“Some guys will think ‘O.K., we have him now,’ but the next thing you know, he’s throwing a devastating changeup up there, and they’re like: ‘What in the world is going on? Now we’ve got to worry about a different pitch?’” catcher Yan Gomes said. “He’s just developed into a true, all-around, four- or five-mix pitcher, and all four or five he can throw at any time.”

Gomes said Kluber had perfected a skill that carried Greg Maddux to the Hall of Fame: the ability to throw in and out on either edge of the plate, as if marking both sides with an X. That way, Gomes said, “guys can’t sit on pitches. They’ll have to guess or get lucky if he makes a mistake.”

Kluber generates his movement with a delivery that “uses every ounce of energy he can possibly use,” Callaway said. Kluber, a seven-year veteran, said it was simply a matter of learning from experience and growing more comfortable with his pitches.

As for the Jordan comparison, at least one other element applies: Kluber, like Jordan, flashes his tongue quite a bit while playing. Before every pitch, Kluber grabs his tongue with his pitching hand, then wipes the saliva on his pants leg before gripping the ball. It is a legal maneuver he uses for a better grip, not a spitball.

“The way they rub the balls up now, they rub them all up in advance,” he said. “They’re not rubbed up all day, so they sit in the bucket with all the dust and stuff, and they get so slippery. Just get a little bit of moisture on your hand, at least.”