SAN DIEGO – To Charlie Morton, Sean Newcomb has what it takes to succeed in the big leagues.
“I just look at him, he’s a major league pitcher,” Morton said recently. “That’s how I see him.”
Morton, the starting pitcher who always is candid and insightful, seems sure of this. Since the Braves acquired Newcomb in 2015, the former first-round pick has faced high expectations. He hasn’t yet met them, but that doesn’t mean he never will.
Newcomb has struggled to find consistency in the majors. He’s gone up and down between the bigs and Triple-A. He’s continued to work at his craft, even if the results haven’t been there.
And the guy who sits a few lockers over in the home clubhouse isn’t ready to give up on Newcomb.
“He’s built like a starter. He’s strong,” Morton said. “He’s built like a guy that can throw a lot of innings. He’s got the stuff to do pretty much anything he wants to. He really can do whatever he wants. It all comes down to getting to know himself and what works for him. I know Newk can accomplish great things in the game.
“I don’t think that’s a question for me.”
Newcomb turns 29 in June. He debuted in 2017 and has pitched in 143 games and started 57 of them. He holds a career 4.24 ERA.
To hear him tell it, this might not be the full story. In 2018, he pitched in 31 games, 30 of them starts, and pitched to a 3.90 ERA. Then the next season, he said, “being a winning team mixed with having a bunch of really good talent around – and me just having a couple of shaky starts and stuff – it was just kind of bad timing.” Newcomb spent time at Triple-A Gwinnett in 2019 and last season.
Newcomb said he’s struggled with the mental side of the game at times. He would put too much pressure on himself to be perfect. Make perfect pitches, get everyone out. But anyone who has watched baseball knows that’s impossible.
“All the best pitchers give up home runs, all the best players strike out,” he said. “It’s just such a tough game. I think that’s what makes baseball so hard. Being a pitcher, you’re not going to succeed, call it a third of the time you’re not going to succeed.”
He learned to accept unfortunate outcomes and failure by watching and talking to others. For example, Newcomb said, Max Fried pitched well on opening day and was still charged with five earned runs. Newcomb feels like he’s in a better spot mentally.
“I think it boils down to confidence,” he said. “Keeping a good perspective. I know I’m not going to be perfect. Knowing where I’m at and knowing I’m not going to be perfect are definitely the main things for sure, and just knowing that my stuff does play at a high level when I’m doing what I need to do.”
As of this writing, Newcomb has pitched in two games for the Braves. In his season debut, he held the Reds to a run over 2-2/3 innings, with one walk, two strikeouts and a wild pitch. In the series opener in San Diego, he surrendered two earned runs on three hits over an inning, with a walk and a strikeout.
These outings were reminiscent of something Newcomb mentioned during an interview: When he doesn’t perform, he feels he’s often hurting himself more than the opponent is damaging him. In his first appearance of the season, he settled in after a wild pitch and a walk. In his second, his early troubles burned him when Luke Voit hit a soft, broken-bat single that scored two runs.
He now knows he can’t achieve perfection, but he’s still trying to find a rhythm in his career.
“Everyone wants to be really good, and I’ve always felt that I had some potential, so I’ve always wanted to push myself to be really good,” Newcomb said. “That’s one of the things that helps. When you can get it under control, having a good perspective has been a huge thing for me because there’s times when I go to Gwinnett, and I’m not too happy about it. Just got to remember where I’m at, how close I am to being where I want to be.
“I really am that close. I’m just a little tweak and – for me, it’s just a confidence thing. Getting the reps and seeing it happen over and over.”
And that last part is going to be toughest for Newcomb. He is a long man in the bullpen. He had a great chance to make the roster out of spring training because he is out of minor-league options, but he didn’t appear to be a serious part of the rotation competition.
Newcomb feels like he’s still figuring himself out. He believes his pitch selection has improved: He said he developed a harder slider and has toyed with ways to make his fastball more consistent, which is huge because he felt his fastball went from being his best pitch to an average offering over his first couple of seasons.
Asked what Newcomb needs to do to further establish himself, Braves manager Brian Snitker said: “Consistency. Getting the ball over the plate. … He’s a big, strong kid that is durable and, as we saw, can do multiple innings. So he can offer you a lot coming out of the ‘pen.”
Newcomb said he craves opportunities to throw multiple innings out of the bullpen. If starting games isn’t going to be his reality, then he hopes for consistent multi-inning reps.
That’s been difficult for him. He’s no longer a starter, which means he never knows how long it will be before he’ll take the ball again.
“Really, I think the key thing for Newk is just to know himself and to have confidence in what he’s trying to do and what he can do,” Morton said.
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