For Matt Dermody, 2016 Will Be Tough To Top

ST. THOMAS, Ontario, Canada—Among a number of eligible candidates, you might be hard-pressed to find someone who had more fun last season than Matt Dermody.

From exploring the growth of his mullet, to the 26-year-old lefthander finding a more successful arm slot, to being called up in September by the Blue Jays after starting the season in the Florida State League, to his clubhouse underwear celebration when his team clinched a spot in the postseason, Dermody’s fourth year of pro ball was certainly his best.

First and foremost, it should be addressed that for that entire season, the lefty reliever sported a distracting haircut that he claims began as an accident. In person, the mullet is a hard thing to look past—despite its attempt to present business in the front with the party in the back.

“In spring training last year, I buzzed the sides and it was very short,” Dermody said.

“I kept the top and the back the same length and then it grew out after a month or so and someone made the comment to me one day asking, ‘Yo, do you have a mullet?’ And I thought oh, maybe I do, I don’t know. I didn’t try to purposely, but then after that I just ran with it. I’ve had it pretty much for a year now . . . People either love it or hate it. I get a lot of love from guys, that’s for sure.”

The hair was just the beginning of a season of career highlights for Dermody. Though the 6-foot-5, 190-pound southpaw attempted to sign and play professionally three of the four times he was drafted—once not receiving a follow-up from the team that picked him and the other time returning home after the organization found a 30 percent tear in his UCL—the final opportunity might have been just the one he needed.

After seeing him over three seasons, last year Toronto’s pitching brass decided to make a change to the way Dermody had thrown his whole life, which set his rapid-fire success in motion.

“I give a lot of credit to our staff, our pitching coaches and coordinator Rick Langford,” the Iowa native said. “He helped me a lot, and then Vince Horsman as well. I’ve spent probably almost all my Blue Jays minor league career with Vince (and) he’s great. I love him . . . They really took me under their wing and changed my mechanics and my arm slot and everything, so that really helped. Then it was refining my game with pitch location and pretty much not missing my spots consistently.”

After signing with the Blue Jays in 2013 as a 22-year-old Iowa graduate with a degree in business management, Dermody spent his first three seasons moving from rookie ball to high Class A Dunedin. Last year, he sprinted through four levels and finished on the big league roster, to which he credits the ability to locate his pitches down in the zone, and the change from throwing at a low three-quarter angle to a high three-quarter slot.

“It took a while to get used to it, recovery-wise and stuff like that,” Dermody said. “But it got a lot more tilt on my pitches, so it’s coming down from a higher angle now which ultimately made it more difficult for the hitter to pick up.”

Between Dunedin, Double-A New Hampshire and Triple-A with Buffalo, Dermody posted a combined 1.82 ERA last season—almost halving his career mark—over 47 games and 54.1 innings, walking eight and striking out 47. He added three innings over five appearances during his time in the majors in September.

The most memorable Matt Dermody moment for many Blue Jays fans who watched intently as their squad clinched the wild-card spot in October was a moment of celebration. Cameras in the clubhouse after Game 162 captured the lefty reveling in the moment, strolling through the locker room with a beverage in one hand and wearing only his jockstrap.

“Well shoot, it thought I got away with it without anybody seeing it,” Dermody said, well-aware of the air time his moment received. “That was the highlight of my life right there, clinching the playoffs with those guys. I was in my glory, celebrating with guys I watch on TV. One thing led to another and it was kind of a spontaneous action.”

Not often when one thing leads to another do people end up in an instant like Dermody’s in Boston.

“Actually with one of my best friends in high school, we used to go streaking in high school,” he said. “Just a spur-of-the-moment thing to make people laugh, so I guess it came from that . . . I’m not sure my mom was a fan of it, but I got a lot of text messages about it.”

Besides just that moment, the end of the year was a dream come true for the hurler.

“Seriously,” he said. “Jason Grilli was telling me when we clinched that not many players get to experience a playoff berth, and me being in just my 30th day there and I got to experience that, I got spoiled with it. It was awesome. The entire year was unbelievable.”