LAKELAND, Fla. -- Ian Krol went through a journey to where he was on the mound at Joker Marchant Stadium on Tuesday, shaking hands with catcher Jake Rogers after finishing out a 6-5 Tigers win over the Yankees.
Grapefruit League victories are usually meaningless for pitchers, especially those with 225 regular-season appearances in the Majors. But for Krol, it went beyond the box score. Six years after his last Tigers stint, three years after his last MLB appearance, and less than a year after independent ball, Krol was not just getting outs, but he was getting out of big situations.
“It was definitely a feeling I haven’t had in a long time,” Krol said.
Krol was a long way from the Nerds Herd and the City of Champions Cup, where he found himself pitching last summer.
“I’ve been talking to a couple people about this independent league that I played in -- family, friends, even some guys around the field,” Krol said Wednesday morning. “I don’t really pat myself on the back for it. I just wanted to stay dedicated to baseball. …
“The people I talked to along the way to try to figure out what I needed to do, we all kind of thought that independent ball league was the best-case scenario for me. I was still living in Chicago. I drove 45 minutes to the yard every day. It was a very easy schedule; we played three or four games in the same ballpark. But just having that kind of mindset to be dedicated to your craft, not give up, keep pushing forward, knowing your worth, all that just came full circle for me. I had fun doing it.”
Krol had lost that sense of enjoyment on the Triple-A shuttle, bouncing around the Angels, Mets, Reds and Twins organizations in 2018 and '19. He made one big league appearance in that time, a two-inning stint with the Angels at Yankee Stadium on May 27, 2018, and was designated for assignment the next day.
When the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of the Minor League season last year, Krol turned to indy ball. He dominated the four-team league, allowing a lone run on eight hits with 31 strikeouts over 19 1/3 innings. Most of the hitters were young Minor League players.
Krol needed a Spring Training opportunity to show if he could carry it over. He found his chance in a familiar spot. The Tigers had traded for Krol, then a hard-throwing 22-year-old lefty, after the 2013 season as part of the Doug Fister deal. General manager Al Avila traded him to Atlanta two years later for Cameron Maybin.
“I wanted to get back into pro ball, and the Tigers really helped me with that,” Krol said. “I really appreciate Al and [assistant GM] David [Chadd]. It’s awesome to see familiar faces. It was a very easy transition into this Spring Training.”
It wasn’t all out of charity. The Tigers know Krol, but they also cast a wide net for pitching this offseason to help cover innings and avoid overworking young pitchers as they jump back to a full schedule of games. Taking a flier on a Krol comeback made sense.
The setting was familiar, but the pitching was different. Krol's fastball-cutter mix is gone, in favor of a knuckle curveball to complement a low-90s fastball. It was one thing he gained while bouncing around organizations, the product of a brief Triple-A stint in the Twins' farm system.
“It was a really tough pitch for me to learn,” he said. “The muscle memory of trying to get your fingers to grip a curveball and then try to throw a cutter off of that can be difficult sometimes. So you’ll see a little bit of inconsistency.”
Just as Krol was getting the feel for the curveball that summer, his season was over. He was suspended by Major League Baseball in August 2019. Then came the pandemic-induced cancellation in '20. This is his first opportunity in affiliated pro ball since then.
The inconsistency is evident this spring, but Tuesday showed what Krol can do when he’s on. He struck out three of the four batters he faced -- all three on the curveball. Socrates Brito watched Krol snap it at the top of the strike zone, stranding runners at the corners in the eighth inning. Tyler Wade could only watch as Krol dropped it on the inside corner to start the ninth. Greg Allen, the only right-handed hitter Krol faced, swung and missed on it to end the game.
The pitch could well be Krol’s ticket back to the big leagues. He’s a long shot to make the team out of camp, but he could put himself in position for an in-season callup -- a revenge tour, he joked.
He’s not ancient; Krol doesn’t turn 30 until May. He believes he has a lot left to give.
“I've been through a roller coaster up and down,” he said. “And I take those emotions and I just try to put as much fun into the game as possible instead of just being frustrated.”