Braves Dispatch: Luke Jackson on handling worst valley of career

“He just flew into town, he knew that I was kind of struggling a little bit,” Jackson said. “He just flew into town himself and he was sitting on my couch when I got there. I was like, ‘What are you doing here?’ He’s like, ‘Ah, just thought I’d come and say hi. I thought you threw the ball great tonight.’ And I just blew the game. I’m like sitting there, I was like, ‘Oh, thanks.’

“(He said), ‘That’s the best stuff you’ve ever had in your career. If you throw with that stuff for the next six years, you’re gonna be really good.’ And I was like, ‘You know? Maybe I look at it that way.’ Stuff, over time, is good. Yeah, it helps when you have a great (batting average on balls in play) or the ball goes at people. But I think stuff over time prevails.”

This was a turning point in Jackson’s career because it helped shape his mindset. Before this, he was so hard on himself during his struggles – which are inevitable for any reliever. But the talk with his dad began a journey to self-belief.

On Tuesday, I talked to Jackson about his 2024 season – which has frustrated and confused him. He feels like he’s had some of the best stuff of his career but isn’t seeing the results. He talked about this two days after the meltdown in Colorado, which began when he allowed four runs and only recorded two outs in the eighth. (After a scoreless inning Wednesday, Jackson’s ERA is 5.83.)

Let’s start with how he views his rough year.

“Partially, it is going out there and executing. I definitely haven’t been executing as well as I could’ve been a lot of these outings,” Jackson said. “But yeah, my stuff is good. In 2019, I had some of the best stuff I’ve ever had and blew a bunch of saves that the world hated me for. I felt great out there and I was throwing great pitches and just kind of getting beat with pitches that I thought were good. It’s adapt or die, and you gotta learn how to adapt in situations and make better pitches.

“And I think right now, I’m kind of learning – it’s part of a learning curve that I didn’t think I was gonna go through again. Because last year I came off Tommy John with terrible stuff and I was very effective and had great numbers, and I was like, ‘OK, now I got better stuff, it should go way better.’ And it’s not. So, just kind of every outing, just learning. I know it’s gonna turn. It’s crazy that it’s taken quite some of the year. I mean, I’m holding onto the wheel of the ship and I’m pulling up, so we’re hoping that this thing rights itself and I can be helpful here to win some games late.”

Of course, this has been difficult for Jackson to stomach. Who likes the rough patches? He’s trying to sit through it and keep going.

“There’s definitely late nights, there’s definitely not sleeping great, there’s definitely venting to my wife about, ‘Maybe I’m just getting old’ or something like that,” Jackson said. “But I’m still throwing 95, 96 and up to 97, I feel great, stuff’s good. It’s just the one hanging curveball or the one slider that I hang all outing gives up a double, or a homer, and I’m like, ‘How is the one pitch that I don’t execute getting hit out?’ And then it’s just like, ‘Listen, it’s baseball’ There’s times where you throw the ball middle-middle and they roll over and it’s right at somebody, and sometimes I throw a painted slider and it gets hit for a double the other way. You’re sitting there like, ‘Is it (the batter)? Is it me? Do I over-analyze this? Do I not?’ And I’m kind of sitting there like, ‘Hey, there’s definitely a lot I can fix. There’s a lot more I can put in and make better pitches throughout the outings.’”

One fix: Jackson said pitch selection has been a focus. He’s noticed hitters sitting on sliders, which means he needs to throw more four-seamers to get them off his slider. It’s about adapting.

Since the Braves acquired Jackson in the trade that brought Jorge Soler to Atlanta, the right-hander has allowed six earned runs on 11 hits over 6-2/3 innings, with four walks and nine strikeouts.

He feels success is right around the corner.

“I know it’s coming,” Jackson said. “I feel it. I feel it. I know over time, stuff prevails. The stuff’s good, I just need to make better pitches here and there and don’t fall into giving up free runners, because I know walks have hurt me lately. But the days where a walk’s not hurting me, it’s the infield single or the one curveball that’s poked out down the right-field line. It’s just one after the other. There’s days where I sit and hang my hat and I’m like, ‘You know, this isn’t fun. But I know overcoming this will be a lot better.’ There’s peaks and valleys to everything in sports, and right now I’m just probably the biggest valley I’ve ever been in.”

When I talked to Jackson, that last sentence of that quote struck me. Right now, I’m in just probably the biggest valley I’ve ever been in. This is saying something for someone who was designated for assignment by the Braves three times in less than a calendar year.

Why has this year been worse than any other?

“I’ve pitched with way worse stuff and been way better, and now I have way better stuff and I’m way worse,” Jackson said. “There’s more of an expectation, and (it’s) the first year I’m kind of making quite a bit of money. I wanted to be like, ‘I’m valuable, I’m worth that. I should put up a 1.80 ERA and dominate.’ But you know, it hasn’t been that way and I think I’ve learned a lot from it and I’m hoping this year just is a building block for the next part of my career, just that I learned as much as I can and maybe help other people who go through something like this, who had success and then all of the sudden, it’s just kind of a weird year.”

Jackson is making $6.5 million this season. He posted a 2.97 ERA last season – and that was right after returning from Tommy John surgery.

But as life teaches. We learn from experiences.

And so, I asked Jackson how 2024 Luke Jackson is better equipped to deal with this tough season than 2019 Luke Jackson.

“Oh, man,” he said. “Yeah, I would’ve been probably out of baseball in 2019. I was in a bad place. Some of those days, I let it affect me off the field – stress and just not sleeping and all this stuff. I mean, we’re humans, too. It’s a performance-based job. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had kids, I’ve had success, I’ve had playoff woes, I’ve given up a three-run homer in the playoffs, I thought I blew a series one time. I’ve done it all. I’ve made some big outs in the World Series. Kind of having just this life of up and down, and DFA’d to being the closer in the same year – just kind of a crazy cycle of pitching.

“I think it’s more stressful on my parents, honestly, now that I think about it. My dad was telling me the other day, he goes, ‘You’ve given me a run for my money these last couple years’ and I said, ‘You’re telling me – I’ve given myself a run for my money.’ It’s just learning, and taking everything as, I’m still healthy, I’ve still got a loving wife and kids and a great support system, and I get to wake up in the morning and put a jersey on my back still, thank God. And I’m gonna do it as long as I can until they tell me I can’t.

“As of right now, I feel like my stuff’s good enough to get big-league hitters out – in big situations. I feel like I’m a very effective right-handed reliever. It’s just, kind of having one of those valleys that you don’t want. I don’t wish it upon anybody, but I’m gonna come out of here built (with) a shield on or something like that. I’m gonna be ready to take on anything after this year.”

For Jackson, the befuddling and maddening part of all this is this: He returned from Tommy John surgery last season and had a great year. In spring training this season, he pumped 97 mph gas. “I’m about to dominate,” he thought at the time.

“And then, this year. It’s just kind of shocking,” Jackson said. “You can never expect anything. You’re never given anything. Everything is earned. I’ve put the work in, I’ve changed about 8,000 routines, I’ve tried everything under the sun, I’ve kind of mixed in new pitches. Maybe my career was, ‘Hey, you’re here to learn a cutter. This was the year to teach you a cutter, and we’re gonna get there by giving you a 6.00 ERA.’

“I’m ready for it to turn. Every outing I go out there, I’m expecting great things. I expect to punch out the side, I’m confident in both of our catchers, our defense and everything. I feel great going out there. It’s just, hit a rough patch lately.”

Extra Innings

* Michael Harris II announced his return with a splash on Wednesday. He hit a grand slam – his first career grand slam – into McCovey Cove. It was the first splash grand slam – as in it landed in the water and didn’t touch any part of the ballpark or the walkway behind it – by a visiting player since Oracle Park opened in 2000.

He doesn’t have the ball, though.

It was caught by a man on a kayak. His name is Dave Edlund. He goes by the nickname “McCovey Cove Dave.”

As of Thursday morning, the Braves had tried and tried to get the ball back – to no avail. They offered to give Edlund the standard currency of exchanges like these – like a ball or a bat.

The word in the clubhouse was that Edlund requested a job with the Giants for the ball. That, of course, is something the Braves cannot guarantee.

Edlund seemed to hint at the request in his comments section on Instagram, though he never specifically said he asked for a job. One user said they read a report that Edlund didn’t want to give the ball back.

“I really want to keep the ball but if the Braves want it, they need to give me (fair) return,” Edlund wrote. “The Giants know my request. But it’s not just a ball (and) a bat. That’s not a reward.”

Bummer for Harris.

* Grant Holmes on Wednesday earned his first major-league win. It was a well-deserved accomplishment for someone who has helped the Braves so much this season.

He’s been in the majors for two months, but still isn’t taking any of it for granted. He’ll often look around and think, “Wow, this is pretty cool.”

“Oh, every day,” Holmes said. “Every day feels surreal. I’m just thankful for each day I get, and I’m just taking it one day at a time.”

* I asked Max Fried about how annoying it is to be trying to find the adjustments to be sharper while feeling well physically.

His answer tells you where his head is at: He’s focused on the big picture and the team’s goals.

“It’s all part of it,” Fried said. “You always go through ups and downs. At this point in the year, it’s about results, so it doesn’t really matter how I’m feeling. I’d rather feel terrible and put up a zero and give us a win rather than feel good and lose a game. That’s kind of where I’m at with it. But we had a really good series here, a step in the right direction. Hopefully we take it into Anaheim.”

* I love how this job allows me to humanize athletes who are often seen as robots and assets.

The life of a reliever is zero or hero. In the eyes of some fans, there’s no in between.

Jackson has experienced this as much as anyone. He’s been a fan-favorite and he’s been hated. He’s gone from hero to scapegoat to hero. And on and on.

How does he not take it personally?

“Yeah, you get a bunch of hateful Instagram messages and Twitter, and all this stuff, and hating on your family and whatever,” Jackson said. “It comes with playing a sport at the highest level, it comes with getting paid a lot of money, it comes with just the accolades that are part of it, it comes with the city behind you – and the highs are high and the lows are low. And yeah, there are crappy people out in the world. It’s just terrible (how) people are like that sometimes.

“I think any job in the world where you have to perform, now that everyone bets on everything and everyone does everything, it adds an extra level to performance and you. But we’re all people. I think if they would sit down and have a beer with me, they’d be like, ‘Oh, this guy’s a good dude.’ I like to hang out. I’m a normal guy. I play video games and grill and do whatever.”

* If you are fond of the Oakland Athletics, look away for a moment.

Wednesday’s win over the Giants might’ve looked familiar to Bay Area folks. It was like the old A’s were back playing at Oracle Park.

Matt Olson homered. Sean Murphy hit a two-run homer that scored Ramón Laureano. Holmes, a former Oakland minor leaguer, started.

The game was full of former A’s.