How routine can dictate a pitcher’s performance

The Toronto Blue Jays are going to ask Francisco Liriano, and possibly other starters, to occasionally assist from the bullpen during the remainder of 2016 season and throughout the playoffs (should the team make the postseason). On paper, this is a brilliant manoeuvre, capable of reinforcing a shaky Jays bullpen. In practice, however, this is a move steeped in risk. 
 
I did both during my professional career - the starter and reliever role - often during the same season. Sometimes I did both during the same week. In fact, I made a living off being able to both start and come out of the bullpen because I wasn't good enough to dominate at either.
 
I was a mop-up pitcher - the guy you threw out for split innings that needed cleaning up so that the talented arms didn't have to get abused. Since a mop-up guy never knows when a team will need a perfectly disposable arm to cover the gaps, I was ready for anything. Not every pitcher can handle the uncertainty. Not that I did it exceptionally well, but I did it well and long enough to land a spot in a big-league pen, if only for a short stint. 
 
I enjoyed the role. In fact, I enjoyed the role for one of the same reasons most pitchers absolute hate it: It gave me a chance to change up my routine. 

 
Routine is a major factor in baseball players' lives, whether or not it actually has anything to do with how they perform. If a player thinks a routine is important, even if it is ridiculous and nonsensical, it's important. And for some players, these routines can hurt more than they can help.
 
Think of the average starter's routine. The average starter knows when he is going to pitch, so he knows he's got at least two practice bullpen sessions (throwing to the catcher accompanied by a pitching coach, but no batter) between his last start and his next. During this time, he'll work on what he wants to feature against his coming opponents, or fix errors he experienced in his last outing. 

How those two practice sessions go can have a major impact on a pitcher's confidence before his next start. Did he hit his spots? Did his slider break hard? Was his fastball down consistently? What does it all mean? 
 
What happened in that bullpen has very little to do with what will happen in the coming game, but a bad session will have a good pitcher obsessing over bad results all the way up until his start. And that's the average starter, one with a normal mind not beholden to paranoia, superstition and baseball voodoo. In other words, that's about 40 per cent of MLB pitchers. The rest range from tea-leaf readers and sign watchers to witch doctors and time travellers. They’ll do anything to ensure a quality outing, even if it means eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with no crust each half-hour, for two hours before the start, and brushing their teeth between each — which I've also seen done. 
 
Speaking of that start day, a starter will have that whole day mapped out. His team knows it's “his day,” and they'll give him a wide berth to make sure they don't disrupt his focus. That's fancy baseball talk for trying not to screw up his personal brand of pitching voodoo.
 
Then the starter will go over the opponent's lineup with his catcher and pitching coach. He'll take a shower, get a massage, get suited up, then head to the field a half hour before the game and take his sweet time playing catch and stretching out. Then that starter will warm in the pen, grag a bottle of water and walk from the bullpen to the dugout trying to look majestic. Then, only when he's ready, will the team run out to the field and the pitcher take the mound.
 
Within this warmup routine there is room for all manner of habit: specific pre-game music, specific pre-game meals, specific pre-game rituals, etc. It's baked into the starter experience. Pitchers know it, teams know it, and it’s difficult to forget once you've gotten used to it.

 
 
The life of a bullpen arm, which is essentially "Be ready to pitch at any time during the game" is a lot different from the five-day, routine-laden life of a starter. If a team is asking you to pitch in the pen after a life of starting, this is not small request.
 
I pulled double duty as a starter/reliever often during my years in the minors. Instead of dragging out my starting routine, I treated a start like a relief appearance where the starter was a (very) late scratch and I had to answer the bell minutes before game time. Since I knew I was going back to the bullpen after the start, I kept my bullpen routine (or lack thereof). Instead of a massage followed by a long toss and a half-hour of stretching, I walked out to the bullpen mound, mounted it, and started throwing to my catcher. I treated it just like I would have if I were getting up mid-game.
 
This is easier said than done, of course, especially since I was already in the bullpen. For starters who've not seen the pen for years, like Liriano, this could be exceedingly difficult. Not only are the Jays asking a player that has years of routine baked into his behaviour, they're also asking an older player to be ready to throw at a moment’s notice. Yes, the Jays could use his lefty prowess out of their pen during the postseason, but there is no guarantee he'll be able to execute when they roll him out there.
 
To combat this, the Jays have already asked him to slide into the bullpen, hopefully for less pivotal outings then a postseason matchup. Even if Liriano doesn't pitch out of the bullpen often, having him out there to adjust to the new environment is important.
 
There’s a reason the narrative of Aaron Sanchez going to the bullpen, even during a season when Sanchez was in the CY Young conversation as a starter, wasn't immediately shot down. The Jays’ bullpen is that volatile and Sanchez’s past experience pitching in relief means he can handle the routine shock. That's good, because he'll most likely be doing it in the postseason. 
 
When the Jays set their playoff rotation (assuming they get there) they should strongly consider Sanchez, then J.A. Happ, then Marco Estrada. Estrada can pitch from the bullpen and cover Sanchez should he explode on night one. A successful Sanchez can then throw his practice bullpen sessions live or in relief of Estrada, if needed, later in a playoff series. 
 
Even if you switch the names around and plug in Happ and Marcus Stroman, etc., all of these starters have thrown from the bullpen no more than a single season ago. R.A. Dickey and Liriano are the only ones who haven’t. 
 
Generally speaking, I find over-steeping a player in routine, as many starters are want to do, to be a liability. But should this Blue Jays team press into the playoffs, you can expect the "routine change impact" narrative to persist. The Jays’ current pitching composition is such that the team will, and must, throw any available arm at the opposition it can find. There simply are not enough tricks in the Toronto bullpen to combat teams with versatile, off-the-bench matchups.
 
I would expect to see all traditional pitching roles get thrown out the window come the postseason. The fact that the Jays are already getting ready for it now with Liriano is a sign of what's to come.