PEORIA, Ariz. -- The Padres had the tying runs on base and the heart of their lineup due to bat, so the Rays -- in a pennant race last August -- called for Emilio Pagán.
Game over.
Pagán struck out Wil Myers to end the eighth. He struck out Manny Machado, Hunter Renfroe and Eric Hosmer in the ninth. Seventeen pitches, four strikeouts, not a single ball in play.
"I remember that outing pretty well," Pagán recalled six months later. "I was pretty dialed in. I know I threw some good cutters to Manny and Wil. The fastball felt good. I felt really good that day."
"Yeah, he was good," Myers confirmed. "I wasn't seeing the ball well, and I ran into this guy, and it was like: 'He's unhittable right now.' Adding that guy to our bullpen? Good gosh, we've got a good bullpen."
Even before they traded Manuel Margot to Tampa Bay on Feb. 8, the Padres owned one of the sport’s best bullpens. They had one of the best closers, too. But they weren't about to pass up a chance to land one of the nastiest relief weapons available. Pagán made his Padres debut on Thursday, working a 1-2-3 third inning against the Angels, while striking out Mike Trout and Brian Goodwin.
Pagán’s ascension began with Oakland in September 2018. He arrived for a three-game series vs. the Rays with a fastball/slider mix, but he wasn't happy with his slider. As a result, he'd begun to lean heavily on his heater.
"I've always gotten a fair amount of swings and misses on my fastball, but that number dipped in '18 because I was too focused on my fastball," Pagán said. "You show them the same pitch over and over, they're big league hitters, they're going to adjust."
Before the series began, Pagán picked the brains of some Rays relievers as the two teams warmed up. They showed him a new grip and explained that they called the pitch a "cutter" -- even though it looked like a slider.
Pagán wanted to turn his slider into a harder pitch with later bite anyway. Instead of an improved slider, he now had a cutter in its place.
"I even threw it the last game of that series, and it looked pretty good," Pagán said. "It was weird, I threw it that series, and I guess they noticed it. The Rays noticed, 'Hey, that's a different breaking ball than what he's been throwing all year.'"
"I got traded there and talked to Kyle Snyder, the pitching coach, and he goes, 'Yeah, we really like that [cutter].' And I said, 'Well, actually, I got that pitch from you, and you don't even know that.'"
Pagán posted a 2.31 ERA last season, punching out 96 hitters over 70 innings. His cutter induced 34 percent whiffs -- impressive, but mostly in line with his slider. But Pagán’s fastball induced swings and misses at a 36 percent clip. Only Josh Hader got whiffs with a higher percentage of his fastballs last year.
"If you've got to be ready for that cutter, I don't know how you're ready to hit that fastball at the top of the zone," said Padres catcher Austin Hedges.
If the story sounds familiar, well, the Padres already have a closer who developed a nasty high-octane secondary weapon that plays perfectly off his fastball. Kirby Yates did it with his splitter.
Now, the Padres have two of the best closers in baseball instead of one. Pagán is under contract for four more seasons, giving San Diego cover if Yates were to leave in free agency after the season. (They'd obviously prefer for that not to happen.)
For now, Yates will maintain his closer duties for arguably the deepest bullpen in baseball. More often than not, Pagán will set him up.
But the Padres plan to contend this season, which means they're planning to win more games. More wins means more save opportunities -- which might mean extra work for Pagán to keep Yates fresh.
"There's days he can take a breather, and he doesn't have to throw four, five days in a row,” Pagán said. “That's huge. We've got a great bullpen. The more we can keep everybody healthy, the better chance we've got.
“A bullpen with all of us is better than a bullpen without one of us."
The Padres agree. That’s why they made the trade. A bullpen with Emilio Pagán is better than a bullpen without Emilio Pagán.