By Changing, Lefferts Gets a Jump-Start

YUMA, Ariz. —  Craig Lefferts is attempting a rare and dangerous--OK, maybe not so dangerous--feat.

No, he is not going to try to jump the Colorado River on a moped.

What he is doing is making a unique transition.

No, he is not a Presidential candidate switching political affiliations. If he is, no one would know it any way.

Lefferts, 34, is changing jobs. This, in itself, is not particularly unusual. A lot of people his age are changing jobs in today’s economy. Lefferts is changing jobs within the same career.

And what he is attempting is very unique.

Have others done it?

“No one comes to mind,” said Mike Roarke, the Padre pitching coach who has been in baseball some 40 years.

“I can’t think of anybody,” said Roger Craig, the San Francisco manager who has been in baseball some 40 years.

What in the world is Lefferts doing? Is he attempting to make the transition from pitcher to shortstop? Does he want to play left field and bat cleanup? Does he want to lead off and steal 60 bases?

Nothing like that. He is a pitcher who wants to become a different sort of pitcher.

Lefferts has spent his major league career as a relief pitcher. More specifically, he has been a closer. His job has been to race out of the bullpen with the game on the line and finish what others have started. This is a very specialized sort of job description.

Craig Lefferts now wants to be a starting pitcher. He wants to begin what others finish.

So what is the big deal?

Fellows who have been around as long as Roarke and Craig cannot remember another established closer who has made the transition to starting pitcher. They cannot even remember another established closer who would even want to attempt such a thing. These closers are cocky fellows who wouldn’t bruise their egos with the mere notion of such tomfoolery.

“When I had Rollie Fingers,” Craig said, “I couldn’t even get him to start a game in spring training. He’d tell me to let someone else pitch to the first hitter and then he’d come out of the bullpen.”

Lefferts himself seemed baffled at the idea that what he was attempting was so unique.

“I’m sure some guys have done it,” he said. “At least part-time.”

Name someone.

Greg Harris?

Wrong. We are talking career relief pitchers who have established themselves as closers. Harris, and others like him, start their careers in the bullpen because that is a way for them to get their feet wet in the major leagues. It is more an internship than a career.

Lefferts could well have taken that very same highway.

“My outlook on the whole thing,” he said, “is that I was a starter through college and the minor leagues. That was all I did. When I came to the major leagues, there wasn’t a place for me to start and they needed me in the bullpen.”

He started five games for the Chicago Cubs in 1983. He also made 51 appearances in relief. He has not started a game since then.

“I went from being the 10th man on the staff to the closer,” he said, “but all that time I was wishing I had an opportunity to start. I guess that feeling went away over the years.”

In truth, careers seem to direct themselves. Most pitchers start out as Lefferts did, as the ninth or 10th men who work middle innings. They then go one way or the other, either doing so well they move into the starting rotation or doing so well they become closers.

Historically, once a closer always a closer.

Circumstances with the Padres have caused Lefferts to regain that feeling of wanting to start, wanting to return whence virtually all pitchers begin. When the Padres acquired Randy Myers, like Lefferts a left-handed closer, the bullpen became a little crowded. Joe McIlvaine, the general manager, told Lefferts there was a possibility he might even be traded.

“Since my role as a relief pitcher was no quite so defined,” Lefferts said, “I thought maybe there might be an opportunity to start. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I might start, I might end up relieving or a might still be traded. There’s talk about all that. I’m just trying to focus on what I’m doing. I’m not going to worry. Everything will fall into place.”

There is very little definition about the Padre pitching staff right now. Ed Whitson’s future as a starter and Larry Andersen’s future as a relief pitcher are clouded by injuries. Ricky Bones, the projected No. 5 starter, could be traded in the next few days.

Craig Lefferts, thus, is a closer who wants to be a starter who might still be needed in the bullpen or might even end up elsewhere.

What he has done, with his commitment to transition, is expand his options within his career.

It surprised him that what he is attempting is far from routine.

“If you’re telling me it can’t be done,” he said, “then I’m telling you I’m gonna do it.”