Blue Jays’ Ricky Tiedemann Learns That Less Can Be More
Ricky Tiedemann arrived at his second big league spring training camp eager to apply the lessons learned from a stop-and-start 2023 season.
The 21-year-old lefthander said the shoulder and biceps issues that limited him to just 44 minor league innings last year, plus 18 more in the Arizona Fall League, taught him “a lot when it comes to my own routines and habits throughout the year.”
Part of that is in scaling down his work between starts, rather than adding on, something Tiedemann did through osmosis while watching veterans at camp with the Blue Jays a year ago.
“Going out there once every five days is already a routine in itself, so you want to slow down a little bit in between,” Tiedemann said. “Last year I wasn’t doing that so much.
“I was continuously adding stuff rather than slowing it down and regrouping between starts. I’ve kind of honed that coming into this year.”
Tiedemann’s shoulder flared up at spring training last year before the biceps shut him down during his fourth outing in early May at Double-A New Hampshire. He didn’t get back into games until late July, and the Blue Jays tried to get him some catch-up with four more appearances in the AFL.
By then the club’s top prospect started to find a consistency in routine, stuff and performance that had eluded him all year. That despite striking out 82 batters in 44 innings across three levels, including one start at Triple-A Buffalo.
“At the beginning of the year, everything was out of place, in a way. Not too much, but just a little bit off,” Tiedemann said. “But at the end of the year we got it locked in.
“Everything started falling into place routine-wise and everything started feeling good in between each start. That’s where I want to be this year.”
