Adam Kloffenstein takes maturity, advanced approach into first full season

DUNEDIN, FLA. and TORONTO — If Adam Kloffenstein had of gone the NCAA route instead of signing with the Blue Jays as a third rounder for $2.45 million, he would have been fielding daily requests from classmates to buy them beer.

Standing six-foot-five, 243 pounds with a full beard and the easy confidence of a major-leaguer, Kloffenstein offers no clues that he’s just 18 years old. A 2000 baby.

Kloffenstein and his high-school teammate Jordan Groshans — Toronto’s first-round pick — come to the Blue Jays from Magnolia, Texas. Kloffenstein describes it as “kind of country, kind of cowboy”, and admits that football is still king in Magnolia like it is anywhere else in Texas.

The Bulldogs of Magnolia were best known for Buddy Dial, the crew-cut wide receiver who played eight years in the NFL over a half-century ago and was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame to commemorate his career at Rice.

Last summer’s MLB Draft changed that.

Suddenly, the college recruiters and scouts milling about campus in team-logo polos and khakis from the Harbaugh Collection were baseball people, not football people.

This is where things start to move 200 mph for a young ball player. Team after team, face after face, telling them just how their organization can maximize a player’s talent and get them to the big leagues. Especially for a young pitcher with Kloffenstein’s physical frame and raw upside, there’s plenty to dream on.

Kloffenstein didn’t blink.

Now that he’s gone through his first full spring and opened the season in extended spring training, the biggest adjustment has been to the pure scale of a major-league operation.

“I met with 30 teams that all told me about their place and they all sang the same tune. I wasn’t really surprised,” Kloffenstein said. “The biggest thing that surprised me at the facility has been the attention to detail.”

The Blue Jays’ facilities in Dunedin are finally receiving their long-needed update this year, and a significant one, but the original facilities still represent a jarring shift from a high-school program. For first-year players, there’s a real ‘first day of school’ vibe to it all. If you make it through the first few days without getting lost or being late for a meeting, you’re doing OK.

“I have no idea how many employees we’ve got here, but it’s got to be a ton,” Kloffenstein said. “There’s a dozen nutritionists, a dozen strength and conditioning coaches, a dozen chefs. There’s something for everybody.”

He’s right. Even among reporters who cover the team year-round, spring training offered a daily game of: “…. who’s that?”

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Off the field, Kloffenstein has been surprised with the amount of down time that players have. Yes, the hard work is put in regardless, but players can’t be on a back field or in a weight room for 18 hours a day. Most players leave the facility in the early afternoon during spring, giving them an afternoon and evening where plenty can go wrong. Those are the hours that Ross Atkins or Mark Shapiro have in mind when they talk about a young player taking control of their own career and decisions.

Think back to yourself at 18 or 20 years old, then add $2.45 million to the picture. It’s a recipe for disaster in immature hands.

Those challenges started for Kloffenstein the moment his name was called in the third round. He got hundreds of texts, including 50-plus from numbers he didn’t even have saved in his phone. That was a clue of what was to come, but Kloffenstein says that people around town knew he wouldn’t waste his money or hand it out recklessly.

This is a young person and player who knows himself, not an erratic teenager. That allows Kloffenstein to pitch with an edge that’s already evident on the mound.

The same confidence that’s helped him avoid some of the off-field pitfalls also shapes who he is as a pitcher. In a game now obsessed with finding 101 mph — forget 97 mph — Kloffenstein is focused on other things than radar readings.

“I can’t express to you how unimportant velocity is to me,” Kloffenstein said. “If I threw 88, I wouldn’t be saying that, but I think I throw hard enough. Even in a couple of years if I’m in the big leagues, and I’m 22, and I’m sitting 92-96 mph while touching 96 during a game, that’s plenty. I think I’ve got a ton of other things to offer.”

Kloffenstein complements his sinking fastball with a changeup, curveball and slider. He prefers the slider if the game is on the line, which is a pitch he developed out of a cutter recently. Both his slider and curveball are just over a year and a half old, so there is plenty of development ahead with the two breaking pitches.

“The curveball, with the spike, I’m trying to get as much 12-to-6 action as I can, trying to get the vertical. The slider has more wrist, a bit more of a fastball thinking in your head,” Kloffenstein said. “Whenever I’m releasing the curveball, I’m more trying to get that knuckle out in front.”

After making his pro debut with two outings for the Bluefield Blue Jays in 2018, Kloffenstein could see time with another short-season team in 2019, like the Vancouver Canadians, before breaking into full-season ball with the single-A Lansing Lugnuts.

Photo: Magnolia High School Baseball