Healthy, 'more confident' Blackburn eager to follow '22 breakout

MESA, Ariz. -- Paul Blackburn seemingly proved himself to the baseball world in the early part of 2022 with a dazzling first half that landed him the first All-Star selection of his career, with his scoreless inning in the Midsummer Classic at Dodger Stadium a signal of his full arrival.

Then came a bout with the injury bug.

In his return from the All-Star break, Blackburn’s effectiveness began to wane. The lackluster second half brought a premature finish to his season, with the A’s officially shutting him down on Aug. 10 due to a tear of the flexor tendon sheath in his right middle finger. This reversal of fortune sent the right-hander into the offseason questioning which pitcher he truly is, the first-half All-Star version or the one that struggled in the second half.

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Now fully recovered from the nagging finger issue, Blackburn is certain the true version of himself is the former. Reporting to Hohokam Stadium on Wednesday morning having thrown for the past two months free of discomfort, he’ll get a chance to show it.

“I feel really good right now,” Blackburn said. “I couldn’t be happier with where I’m at. The way my body feels and where my mind is, I’m just excited to get back. I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve been able to go out and compete against somebody.”

To be specific, that last competitive outing was Aug. 4, 2022, when he surrendered a career-high four home runs in a start against the Angels at Angel Stadium. As was the case with most of his second-half outings, location was an issue for Blackburn in that start, potentially an effect of the finger injury. Making three starts post All-Star break, Blackburn allowed six homers in 14 1/3 innings, quite the contrast from the nine homers and 3.62 ERA he posted in the previous 97 innings over his first 18 starts.

“I just couldn’t finish pitches,” Blackburn said of his struggles in the second half. “You always have little stuff that pops up throughout the year. That was something that I thought was just going to go away, and it never went away. If anything, it got worse every day.

“Looking back, it was just something where I couldn’t finish pitches and everything kind of flattened out on me," he added. "My location, instead of everything being down by the knees it got up by the thighs, and that’s where you get hurt. I got hurt in that second half.”

With health back on his side, Blackburn enters camp coming off an offseason that featured probably the least tinkering of his career. He has been throwing his changeup more in sessions and plans to utilize the pitch more than the 12.7 percent usage it got in ‘22, but there was no need to add a new pitch to the mix or change his delivery. Instead, Blackburn aims to build on the foundation he set for himself last season.

“I feel like you always have something to prove in this game because it can turn on you so fast,” Blackburn said. “It’s not really like a ‘you’ve got to prove something’ mentality. It’s just to build off of it, keep making the strides forward that you want to make. That’s how I’ve approached it. I haven’t tried to add any pressure or stress on myself. If anything, I feel more confident this year coming into camp just based off how last year was. That’s where I want to be, just confident every day out there.”

With his former rotation mate Cole Irvin not in the picture after the lefty was traded to Baltimore last month, Blackburn also comes into camp as the elder statesman of the rotation, with a grand total of 48 Major League starts under his belt.

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Though Blackburn, 29, doesn’t envision himself as a loud and demonstrative clubhouse leader, he does want to open himself up as a resource to the several young pitchers vying for spots in the A’s rotation this spring, many of whom bring just a handful of games of Major League experience.

“It’s scary,” Blackburn joked of being the longest-tenured A’s player on the roster. “But I don’t feel any different. I’m the same guy every day. A guy that’s going to go up to someone and talk one-on-one, see how they’re feeling.

“I feel like that’s the way you build relationships and trust that you can talk about stuff you’re going through," Blackburn added. "The more comfortable someone can feel, the better you’re going to get. I want all the new guys to feel comfortable and know there’s a lot of people here, player and staff-wise, that you can talk to if you need help with something or see something going on.”