O's righty Wells credits mentor LaTroy Hawkins for his success

NEW YORK -- Right-hander Tyler Wells is one of the reasons the Orioles are off to a great start (31-17) in 2023.

Wells, who is toeing the rubber against the Yankees on Wednesday night, is Baltimore’s best starting pitcher, leading the rotation in bWAR (1.5) and ERA (2.94).

While he credits a lot of people for his success in the game of baseball, Wells has a special place for former Major League pitcher LaTroy Hawkins, currently the Twins’ special assistant to baseball operations. Wells was in the Twins organization when the two first met during the 2017 season, when Wells was pitching for Class A Cedar Rapids. Hawkins saw talent in Wells, but the right-hander needed to do something in order to survive the grind of a long season: Wells needed to lose weight.

“He was this big fella,” Hawkins recalled via telephone. “He didn’t get into his man body yet. I said, ‘Young man, you need to work out. You need to get your body right. If you get your body right, things will fall into place for you.’”

Wells wasn’t offended by what Hawkins said. In fact, Wells took heed and lost 60 pounds that offseason, according to reports. The weight loss was achieved by having a proper diet and self-discipline.

“He talked about [losing weight], and he did it. He accepted my challenge,” Hawkins said. "He changed his life. That’s what he did.”

As Wells put it, Hawkins told him what he needed to hear.

“He has such experience in this game. He knows what it takes,” Wells said. “When he says, ‘I see it, you have to do this to get there and stay there,’ that means a lot to me. It didn’t hurt my feelings because he said it in a way -- he is just a straight-up man. He will tell the truth and that’s that. I like people who tell me exactly what I need to hear.

“Self-discipline is something you don’t say about a diet. You have to be incredibly self-disciplined even when you are playing. It’s really difficult to do it if you don’t have any self-discipline with your life outside of baseball. I think that’s the big thing [Hawkins] got at was, you have to stick to the plan, you have to be able to get it done. If you can’t get it done, you are never able to help yourself. He was very much like, you can fix this. You can do this internally. You don’t need anyone else to … hold your hand. You have to do it.”

Butt Wells wasn’t able to pitch in the big leagues for the Twins after the Orioles took him in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft. Wells made his Major League debut the next year as a relief pitcher before becoming a mainstay in the rotation starting in 2022.

“I’m just ecstatic. He is doing exactly what I envisioned him doing,” Hawkins said. “I was happy he went somewhere where he was able to pitch in the big leagues. He showed that he was ready to take that next step in his career. When I see the stats or see him pitching, I just smile and I say, ‘Good job, Tyler.’”

Although they haven’t kept in touch like they should, Wells thinks about Hawkins on a regular basis.

“If I ever get the opportunity to see him in Minnesota, if he is there, I always go up and I always talk to him,” he said. “I got to see him in '21 a little bit. I talked to him. It’s always great to see a guy like that, see the smile on his face, just that welcoming presence he has.

“He is a big influence on everything that I’ve done up here. One of the things he has always said, ‘North, South, East and West -- if you can command those four zones, then you will be able to pitch in the big leagues.' I’ll never forget that. That was always his mentality.”