How Mariners’ Wade LeBlanc went from Yankees’ spring castoff to hot starter

Veteran left-hander Wade LeBlanc has become a standout starter for the Seattle Mariners this season after a failed attempt this past spring to make the Yankees’ Opening Day roster as a long reliever.

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NEW YORK —Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia and pitching coach Larry Rothschild were having a chat in the bullpen early Tuesday afternoon when a familiar face walked in. 

“We were just catching up,” Seattle Mariners lefty Wade LeBlanc, who was with the Yankees in spring training, said the next day while relaxing at his locker in the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium before the Yankees’ 7-5 walk-off win.

This was anything but a ‘Look at me now’ moment for LeBlanc, a seasoned but unpretentious vet who has risen from the ashes of a spring release – a release that he admits was deserved – to become one of baseball’s hottest starters.

“It’s crazy, but at the same time you know it’s in there,” LeBlanc said. “You just keep working, keep grinding and as long as you’re staying healthy …”

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It’s also crazy that the Yankees are looking to add starting pitching before the July 31 trade deadline and they let a good one get away for nothing just three months ago.

LeBlanc laughed when he was asked if he thinks it’s ironic that his impressive stats – he’s 3-0 with a 2.63 ERA in 14 games, the last nine as a starter – aren’t terribly different from big-name starters that the Yankees are rumored to be after … the likes of Mets ace Jacob deGrom.

“I think anybody would be stupid not to take Jacob deGrom over Wade LeBlanc,” LeBlanc responded with a smile. “I’m just going to be honest with you. I would take him over me for a good reason. He’s in the top two or three pitchers in baseball right now.”

LeBlanc, however, is disappointed that he’s not pitching in this week’s three-game series against the Yankees even though he knows how lethal their offense is.

“I would have liked to have seen how I stacked up,” he said.

The spring training quest for LeBlanc, who signed a minor-league contract with the Yankees last January, was to win an Opening Day roster spot as a long reliever. But even though he’s mostly been a big leaguer for the last decade and he’d had some good seasons, he understood he was facing long odds.

First off, the Yankees bullpen is as loaded and deep as any in baseball. And LeBlanc, a poster boy for soft-tossing lefties, historically has been hit around in spring trainings when his control needs weeks to get sharp and his fastball velocity needs time to build up to its 87-mph peak.

“My stuff probably is pretty easy to hit when hitters aren’t timed up for 95-mph fastballs,” LeBlanc said.

LeBlanc, who had a cup of coffee with the 2014 Yankees, never made a push for a roster spot. In seven relief outings, he ran up a 5.27 ERA over 13 2/3 innings of work, and by late March, his agent went to the Yankees about triggering his late-spring opt-out clause early.

The Yankees agreed, and with spring training winding out, LeBlanc was released.

“The Yankees were nice enough to let us know that they didn’t see me making the team at that point,” LeBlanc said. “They said ‘If you want to see what else is out there, we’ll let you go.'”

LeBlanc doesn’t blame the Yanks for giving up on him instead of waiting and hoping for a return to his previous good forms, such as when he pitched to a 3.77 ERA in 2016 for the Mariners and Pittsburgh Pirates.

“I didn’t do enough in spring training to kind of push them into putting me on the team,” LeBlanc said. “It’s as simple as that. Their evaluation in spring training was spot on. I wasn’t very good. So anybody that’s saying that the Yankees missed on somebody … all they had to go off of was what they saw in spring training.”

Still, just two days later after being let go by the Yanks, LeBlanc signed a guaranteed one-year, $650,000 deal for a second stint with another of his former clubs, as the Mariners were looking for a veteran reliever after losing righty David Phelps for the season in March with a torn UCL.

“You go where you think the opportunity is best, and if it’s not, you kind of audible out and see what else is out there,” said LeBlanc, a 33-year-old from Louisiana.

No one, not even LeBlanc, imagined what would happen next.

His season got off to a poor start, as he pitched to a 4.61 ERA over five April relief outings for Seattle, then he went on the best roll of his career after replacing injured righty Erasmo Ramirez in the rotation on May 3.

“Ramirez strained his lat and they thought initially it would be a 10-to-12 day thing,” LeBlanc said. “So I make one start and do pretty decent, then I make a second start that was pretty decent, then Ramirez had a setback and here we are.”

Using a five-pitch repertoire that includes a lot of well-located slow fastballs, LeBlanc has been one of the most effective starters in the game over the last two months. In his nine starts, he’s 3-0 with a 2.06 ERA.

What’s the secret to his success?

“Execution and sequencing,” LeBlanc said “I’m throwing the same stuff I did in past seasons.”

His last start was the best outing of his career, 7 2/3 shutout innings of two-hit ball with nine strikeouts and no walks in a 1-0 Mariners’ win at home over the Boston Red Sox. Mookie Betts led off the game with a hit, then Boston didn’t have another baserunner until two outs in the eighth.

“I executed pitches and when they hit them, they went right to guys,” LeBlanc said.

LeBlanc is staying humble. He knows there are ups and downs in baseball. His career is proof, as he’s 33-35 with a 4.23 ERA playing for seven teams over 10 big-league seasons from 2008-2014 and 2016-18.

By the way, his return to the Yankees bullpen before Tuesday’s game brought back one of his favorite baseball memories. He was with the Yankees for 12 days in June 2014, and prior to his one outing, he charged out of the Yankees bullpen and crossed paths with Derek Jeter during his jog to the mound.

“That was a really surreal moment for a guy like me,” LeBlanc said. “That was a wow moment. That was Jeter’s last season and he’s a guy who at that time was kind of bigger than baseball, so to be able to run out in Yankee Stadium and meet up with Derek Jeter and have him slap you on the butt and say, ‘Let’s have some fun’ … it was pretty cool.”

His run this season has been surreal, as well.

“I went to a place where I’m comfortable,” LeBlanc said. “Comfort is huge. You see so many guys sign big contracts with new teams and they go there and they’re just not the same guy. There’s something about being comfortable in the game of baseball that allows you to go out and be yourself and be OK with being yourself.”

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.