The key for one of MLB's best closers? Visualization

This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Taylor Rogers was quite a pickup, huh?

On the eve of the regular season, the Padres still needed a closer, so they traded for one on Opening Day, sending Chris Paddack and Emilio Pagán to Minnesota in exchange for Rogers.

At the time, however, Rogers had never actually spent a season as an everyday closer. Sure, he’d saved some games for the Twins. But being THE closer is a different job entirely. Some guys are cut out for it. Some aren’t. Rogers clearly is.

“It doesn’t look like there’s a lot that affects him,” said Padres manager Bob Melvin. “And even if it does, it doesn’t look like it to the opponent. He looks pretty clear-headed out there all the time. Even when there are guys on base, he always looks the same. There’s no blood-in-the-water-shark type thing with him. He’s always pretty stoic out there.”

That was never more true than Friday night against Philadelphia. With the Padres clinging to a one-run lead, Rogers allowed two seeing-eye singles, and he suddenly found himself in a jam against one of the sport’s top offenses. A once-raucous Petco Park was on edge.

“You just revert back to your preparation,” Rogers said. “You’re kind of visualizing throughout the day what that ninth inning might look like. So once you’re out there, you’re kind of seeing it for the second time.”

The first time? All in his head. Rogers’ visualization techniques have been a huge part of his game preparation since he went to college at the University of Kentucky. It’s an all-day thing. In all of Rogers’ baseball-related tasks, he’s putting himself in the mindset of the ninth inning – what it feels like, what it sounds like, what nerves and emotions along with it.

“It’s kind of like a light blowdryer on throughout the day,” Rogers said. “It’s just: As preparations go throughout the day, I’m thinking about it here and there. It’s cool knowing that this is your role, so you can build yourself up to it and basically see it happen before it happens.

“And I’m not saying I can visualize all the stuff. But you know how each pitch is accentuated? When I throw a ball in the ninth, it just seems like more of a ball than it does in the second. It’s just getting comfortable with that. That’s what I’m picturing, so that when the fans are cheering, I’m not trying to hurry.”

With a mindset like that, it’s no wonder Rogers has adapted well to life as a closer. All that visualization appears to be paying off. He would escape that jam to record his 22nd save, tied for the Major League lead.