LAKELAND, Fla. — Andrew Chafin, the Detroit Tigers‘ new left-handed relief pitcher, came through the door wearing camouflage Crocks and holding a can of Mug root beer.
“Oh dear,” he said, seeing a group of reporters in the lobby of the Tigers facility.
His crazy hair, as his daughter calls his mop of curls, was sprouting from a bandanna. “My wife got the bright idea to straighten it,” he said. “My 3-year-old, her hair is like this, but it’s blonde and curly.”
After his wife straightened his hair, his daughter was upset.
“She’s like, where’s your crazy hair?” Chafin said.
So the crazy hair is back.
And it fits his personality.
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First impression: he is a fun-loving, light-hearted, beer-drinkin’ dude who hates analytics and makes this bullpen even stronger.
He lives on a 275-acre farm about an hour south of Cleveland, which is part of the reason why the Tigers were able to get him, signing him to a two-year, $13 million deal.
“It definitely did not hurt,” Chafin said, about the proximity to his farm. “I mean, being able to just drive home any given day, say hi to my girls and drive back, it’s very nice situation to be in.”
You get the sense that he is gonna fit into Michigan with no problem. He’s into boating, fishing, deer hunting, building stuff and getting his hands dirty.
But more than anything, he’s a “Girl Dad.”
“I got a few shirts that say girl dad and stuff like that,” he said. “I’m proud of it.
Tigers fans are gonna love him, if only for his postgame interviews and to follow his YouTube channel.
“Oh, it’s a wee bit messy in here,” he says in a video, taking viewers inside his garage, filled with huntin’ stuff, fishin’ stuff, machin’ stuff, ranchin’ stuff and a motorcycle. “This is like a war zone.”
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If he pitches anywhere near as well as he produced smiles and laughs at his introductory news conference, the Tigers have themselves an absolute stud. We could give you all kinds of analytics about his pitching — how he had an elite 0.932 WHIP in 2021, how he has induced ground balls 50.8% of the time in his career and how he limits hard contact because it’s just so dang hard to barrel up the ball against him.
But what’s the point? He doesn’t care.
“You either did good or you didn’t do good,” he said. “I don’t need all the percentage of the angles of the getting out there with it or you didn’t do this. Was it a good pitch or not?”
In the age of metrics, he’s a breath of fresh air.
A dude who just throws the ball
“It’s simple,” he said. “Baseball is simple and has a tendency to get way overcomplicated. And I think, there’s a pile of people who need to kind of slow down and quit thinking so much. So it’s a game of reaction. Not a game of like calculation. Although it is, but it’s not.”
You get the sense that he’d rather talk about the new lift that he built in his garage — he devoted an entire YouTube segment to it — than discussing his nasty slider or how he commands his sinker.
“Somebody said (my spin rate) was below average once — I was like sweet,” he said. “I don’t care much for the analytical side of things.”
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He just goes out and pitches: “I go up and in, down and away and I bounce a breaking ball not necessarily in that order. Good luck.”
He has a simple approach: just throw strikes and don’t fret over what happens. That might be his super power. It allows him to forget what happened yesterday and focus on today — one of A.J. Hinch’s mantras.
“Once the ball leaves my hand, it’s out of my control anyway,” he said. “Why beat yourself up over giving up a hit or something like that?”
His strategy is simple: throw strikes and let the batter get himself out.
“Here’s a sinker, roll it over, let’s move on to the next guy,” he said. “I’m just gonna trust my stuff and hope for the best.”
Yep, it’s a simple game, if you let it be.
“I haven’t thrown any live BPs much yet but it doesn’t take much,” he said. “Obviously, I’m a reliever so one inning usually and so I’m pretty built up for that one.”
He paused, waiting for more laughter.
“No, it’s gonna be a quick turnaround. Get up on that mound real quick here.”
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Nobody seems worried that he’ll be ready. He is a workhorse — he’s appeared in more than 70 games in a season four times in his career.
“You don’t really have a choice, they call your name and you gotta go so why not grab it and go.”
What, me worry?
He broke into the big leagues in 2014, pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team coached by Kirk Gibson.
“I think Tram may have been on that staff as well,” a reporter asked. “Have you bumped into Tram?”
“I didn’t even realize he was here,” Chafin said. “To be honest, I don’t follow baseball much.”
He basically told his agent: Don’t bother me. Just go find me a team.
But the Tigers couldn’t sign him until after the lockout.
“Did the process start causing any anxiety?” a reporter asked. “I mean, did it wear on you?”
“Nope, I was cool as a cucumber the entire time,” he deadpanned, pausing for laughter. “Let’s be honest, this whole situation this year has been an absolute crap shoot.”
To be honest — and he was so brutally honest it was awesome — he doesn’t know a lot about the Tigers.
Doesn’t know about the young prospects.
“I don’t really pay attention to that stuff too often,” he said. “I just want to show up and do my job and leave to be honest. If I go do my thing, then it works great for everybody.”
But he does know the Tigers new shortstop, Javier Baez — they played together with the Chicago Cubs.
“Throw that sinker, get the ground ball and start walking to the dugout,” Chafin said. “He’s gonna make the play every time, so it’s exciting. I’m really looking forward to that.”
After being traded the last two years, he just wants to settle down.
“If I could put some roots down here for a while, I’d be pretty excited about that,” he said.
But not as excited as he gets about his farm, or his excavator, or his boat, or his girls, or deer hunting.
Basically, he’s already one of us.
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Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.