DENVER – Jon Gray was once the No. 12 ranked prospect in all of baseball and seen as the savior to the Colorado Rockies rotation woes. Now, 95 weeks on the dot since he made his debut in 2015 against the Seattle Mariners, Gray remembers that Tuesday night and the progress he’s made since.
The big bearded and blonde boisterous righty is sporting a 4.76 ERA over his 221 career innings but is coming off what was one of the best single seasons in club history for a hurler in 2016. Now sidelined with a stress fracture in his foot which has hampered most of his 2017 going back to Spring Training the 25-year-old is bursting to get back into one of the best Rockies rotations ever and regain his spot atop it.
In under full two calendar years since Gray first took the mound against Seattle where he went four innings, allowing two earned on five hits and two walks while striking out four he’s already pitched maybe the best game in Rockies history—striking out 16 against San Deigo—and become the first consistent force of the Colorado staff since Ubaldo Jimenez.
“It was a day full of events, I remember trying to focus on how to get guys out,” Gray remembered. “I was looking at the scouting reports and everything and seeing the names in the lineup and it was for real. I’m facing (Robinson) Cano and those guys but all I could think about was staying within myself, throwing strikes and keeping it simple. It was really fun.
“I wish I had more confidence then,” he continued. “I would’ve challenged their hitters a little more. But I’m glad everything worked out the way it did, it was a great debut.”
It was the most memorable 44 GameScore ever for a lot of Rockies fans because it was a day long in the making.
With the Rockies at their worst many began to turn their eyes down the farm and watch future big leaguers. Gray headlined this with his clout. His experience in the minors may be unique in the sense that many were more interested in watching his starts than the games the major league team was playing.
“It was a little different because I always saw this stuff about ‘when is he coming? When is he going to get here?'” Gray said. “But I always put it to the back of my mind and pretended like it was going to be a long ways down the road that way I wouldn’t think about it or worry but I just tried to go out and make myself a better player every time, pick up new things. But trying to ignore that stuff was hard for me because I knew that at any second it could be time (for a call up). Just focusing on what was in the meantime what was important then. I think it all worked out right.”
Gray has made noticeable improvements since his days in the minors and his subsequent debut.
“I think I’ve made a lot of good changes,” he said. “The stuff and everything has been the same since I’ve been here but being here and having a lot of starts under my belt I’ve started to learn how my stuff works and how to use it more to get better.
“It’s a confidence thing. I just have to understand how to pitch better and I know how to get guys out now even when I don’t have my best stuff,” Gray continued. “I know where to put the ball and stuff like that which gives me a bit of an edge and more confidence. I feel like I pick up so much info that I can have a bad day, go out there, and still make it through the fifth.”
The Gray Wolf has lived up to every expectation thus far, now his work is to get back onto the field to bolster a competing club.
