Familiar surroundings are important to Drew Storen.
Storen found a home in Washington with the Nationals in 2010,
changing roles while helping his team to the playoffs in 2012 and 2014. He was the Nationals first choice in the
2009 draft and made his Major League debut less than a full year after the
draft, making brief stops at all every minor league level along the way. Storen signed on June 10, 2009 and pitched a
scoreless 2/3 of an inning against St. Louis on May 17, 2010.
The 29-year old righthander, who is a bit shorter than the
6’1” listed in the Reds’ media guide, became a huge presence on the mound for
the Nationals in the late innings
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He had little time to settle in anywhere in the minor
leagues but once he advanced to the big club, he flourished. Storen was 4-4 with a 3.58 ERA in 54 games,
earning five saves his rookie years. The
next season, Storen notched 43 saves in 73 games with a 6-3 record and a 2.75
ERA. He missed 89 games after having
bone spurs removed from his elbow in 2012 but recovered to pitch 37 games
building a 3-1 record with a 2.37 ERA and four saves for a team that surprised
prognosticators to win the National League East Division.
“No one expected us to do anything in DC and things just
clicked,” said Storen, who believes the same thing coud happen in
Cincinnati. “We have some hungry guys
here (in Cincinnati).”
He was 1-1 with a save in the playoffs against the Cardinals
but gave up four runs in the ninth inning of the deciding game five.
Storen experienced the playoffs again in 2014 after leading
National relievers with a 1.12 ERA in 65 appearances. In his last three years in Washington, he
collected 43 saves in 191 appearances.
.The business of baseball took Storen out of his comfort
level. The Nationals traded him to
Toronto for centerfielder Ben Revere in January, 2016. Storen suffered through 38 games with the
playoff bound Blue Jays with a dismal 1-3 record with a 6.21 ERA and three
saves. Toronto sent him to Seattle near
the trading deadline for Joaquin Benoit.
“It was a big thing for me last year,” Storen said. “You take for granted that comfort zone of
knowing everybody. You have to start
over its different.”
The Reds signed Storen to a one-year deal on January 3 and
Storen used his familiarity with Tucker Barnhart, who was his catcher at
Brownsville High School near Indianapolis.
He went on the Reds’ winter caravan at the end of the month.
“It is like buying a house.
You have to check off a lot of boxes,” Storen said. “I talked to Tucker Barnhart a lot. I knew what I was getting into. I knew some of the guys coming in and going
on the caravan helped. I’ve been
learning everybody’s name. It’s been
good so far.”
Reds’ manager Bryan Price has Storen, Raisel Iglesias,
Michael Lorenzen and Tony Cingrani in mind including Storen for late innings
work and doesn’t necessarily want to designate a “closer.”
“At this point I want to say no (to naming a closer),” Price
said. “Should there be a recipe that
plays out, typically you want a one inning or one plus inning guy because you
might have three or four games in a row.
With multiple inning guys like them, you don’t need to designate a
closer. I would really like to look at
the end of the year and see Storen, Iglesias, Cingrani and Lorenzen in particular
to have some saves. It is asking a lot
for four guys to be comfortable pitching in the last inning.”
Storen and Cingrani have done it. Iglesias had some save opportunities last
season.
“Lorenzen didn’t have a lot of chances but I think he’s
built for that,” Price said.
Storen is looking forward to the opportunity and is fine
with an undefined role
“We have a young bullpen,” Storen said. “Hopefully, I can help those guys out. I get a chance to get some big outs late in
the game. You’ve seen the evolution of
the bullpen. You’ve seen the how
important they view all those last three innings. We have a unique situation with Iglesias and
Lorenzen, who can go multiple innings.
It’s going to be a fluid situation.
Whatever gets me the ball in a big spot late in the game, is fine with
me.”
The diminished expectations of a young team didn’t deter his
decision to come to the Reds.
“I think we really do have the ability to surprise people,”
Storen said. “We have young talent mixed
with a veteran presence. People don’t
have expectations for us. We can get out
there and do our thing. I’ve learned
throughout the years that worrying about expectations can only complicate
things. You have to take care of stuff
in the bubble. You take care of the guy
next to you. You need to make sure
everybody is pulling in the right direction.”
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