Guardians: Foster Griffin resurrected career in Japan, makes Guardians debut Thursday

CLEVELAND — At the age of 30, new Guardians pitcher Foster Griffin might be too young to be a big Beatles fan, but he can relate to "The Long and Winding Road." Griffin, a first-round draft pick of the Royals in 2014, didn't find immediate success in the majors so he left the country and spent three years playing in Japan for the Yomiuri Giants. The left-hander returned to the states this year and became an All-Star with the Washington Nationals, and now he's in Cleveland pitching for a playoff contender after being acquired in a trade Monday. "I feel like I haven't had a whole lot of time yet to kind of sit back and process it," Griffin said of his breakthrough year. "Maybe that'll be in the offseason, because right now, I'm just kind of focused on the craft and what we're doing right now and trying, especially at this point in time, to help this team win the division more than anything. "So that might be more of a reflect question for the offseason. But the short answer would be it's a whirlwind and I'm blessed to be in the position I am." Where Griffin (12-3, 3.06 ERA) will be today is on the mound at Progressive Field, where he will make his Guardians debut in the series finale against the Mets. Japan is usually where unwanted MLB players go on their last leg, but it was the destination where Griffin resurrected his career. He speaks very highly of the land of the rising sun. "Everybody has a different experience, but I have nothing but positive things to say about Japan. I loved my experience," Griffin said. "Three years flew by for me and my family. My oldest daughter basically grew up there. So, the culture was unbelievable. The fans were great. My teammates were unbelievable. I can't say enough good things about it. "It was an adjustment. Definitely a language barrier, but I had a translator there with me. I just felt like I fit into the culture that made it very easy. They're very hard workers, respectful, and everybody was super accepting of me. And the fans, the baseball atmosphere, there's not a whole lot not to like over there. So, I really enjoyed it." It's in Japan where Griffin became the pitcher he is today — one with seven pitches in his arsenal. "They weren't all at once that I added," Griffin said. "I would say when I went to Japan, I was fastball cutter, curveball, change. And then as my Japan tenure went on, I added the splitter first and then the sinker and then the sweeper over the years there. So, by my third year in Japan, I had all of them. I pitched with all of them last year. And then this would be probably my second full year with that full arsenal." There was motivation behind the overhaul. "I'm not a velocity guy, obviously. And I kind of had to make a decision in my career to stop chasing velocity and kind of figure out a different way to get hitters out, especially from a starter's perspective," Griffin said. "I was kind of just trying to separate all my pitches as much as I could to kind of create that decision making for the hitter." Veteran Austin Hedges is looking forward to catching the new guy with a unique, old school approach. "I love guys that can pitch. It's kind of a lost art in this sport," Hedges said. "This league's got stuff now and velocity, and he's shown the world that you can still pitch with different shapes of movement and execution. "We got some guys on our team that have large arsenals, too, just to be able to keep hitters off balance. And a lot of times you look at a scouting report and it's like, 'Oh, well, my pitcher doesn't have this pitch.' Well, when your pitcher does have that pitch, you can exploit a hitter's weakness a little bit more if you have that weapon. And just give us more options to have some fun with." Contact Chris Assenheimer at (440) 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @CAwesomeheimer on X.