WASHINGTON – It is the kind of turnaround any ballplayer dreads, a most extreme version of the day game after a night game, and the Cleveland Guardians’ clubhouse reflected that harsh reality Wednesday morning.
The Guardians played 18 innings the day before, finishing off a doubleheader around 9:30 Tuesday night, only to be greeted by a noon start to finish the series and cap a span of 22 games in 23 days. Classic rock plays gently on the speakers and Gatorade cups are filled with coffee, the better to summon whatever energy to get through this necessary evil of a 162-game schedule.
In another year not too long ago, Carlos Santana would have his own setup, a coffeemaker that produced the good stuff, befitting a ballplayer who hails from the Dominican Republic hometown from which Café Santo Domingo draws its name.
But Santana is 39 years old, and coffee is no longer in the equation.
He is now the second-oldest position player in Major League Baseball, and surviving the game’s rigors comes with sacrifice. And preparation. And discipline.
It is why he has a personal chef at his disposal, both for homestands in Cleveland and at his Tampa home in the off-season. And spends time atop the massage table before and after every game.
And, in a sacrifice that stung, left his coffeemaker behind and cut his caffeine intake to virtually nothing.
“Last year, I quit. And my body feels good,” Santana tells USA TODAY Sports. “It was tough. It’s hard, everybody knows, at my age.
“People have retired. But I’m keeping on.”
He’s not just keeping on: Santana salvaged a split for the Guardians in that doubleheader the night before, crushing a three-run home run to ensure their 9-1 victory. He had four hits in nine at-bats over those 18 innings – and was in the lineup once again at first base the next morning.
He played savior for the second time in less than 18 hours, erasing a 3-0, sixth-inning deficit with a bases-clearing double off Washington Nationals starter Michael Soroka to rouse the Guardians from their afternoon slumber. It was the key blow in an eight-run inning and the Guardians went on to an 8-6 victory Wednesday.
Hey, the Guardians aren’t paying him $12 million this season to sit. Santana has four homers and 16 RBI as he begins a third tour of duty with Cleveland.
Technically, he’s played for eight teams. But Cleveland was where it began at the big league level for Santana, way back in 2010, an eight-year run during which he hit 174 home runs and helped Cleveland to Game 7 of the World Series and, now that Michael Brantley has retired, outlasted all the position players from a debut squad with several guys worth remembering.
With Carlos Carrasco’s designation for assignment by the Yankees, Santana’s the last man standing from that team. Only Justin Turner, the Chicago Cubs’ 40-year-old DH, is older among position players across the big leagues.
And many of his current teammates were in grade school when Santana first stepped on a major league diamond.
“First and foremost, he’s just a professional,” says Guardians All-Star outfielder Steven Kwan, a sixth-grader when Santana debuted. “Takes care of his body, does everything right. He’s very vocal about what he does in the weight room, off the field. He doesn’t drink, makes sure he eats the right things, gets full sleep.
“I think it’s a really cool role model for a lot of us young guys. It shows if you want to play in this game a long time, this is what it looks like. There’s no secrets. Just all the stuff that’s been hammered into us at a really young age.”
It’s a role Santana takes seriously, particularly given the makeup of the Guardians’ roster.
‘You think you know everything’
More than one-quarter of Cleveland’s roster hails from the Dominican, including franchise player Jose Ramirez, All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase and charismatic outfielder Jhonkensy “Big Christmas” Noel.
Beyond being a familiar face and comforting voice from home, Santana tries to hammer home that nothing in this game is permanent.
In turn, his half-dozen Dominican teammates – ranging in age from 23 to 32 – keep Santana feeling spry.
“I try to help the Dominicans,” he says. “They follow me. They ask so many questions, asking why I play for a long time and look good. I feel like a kid. I feel like a younger guy when I’m playing with them.
“When you’re younger, you think that you know everything. You think, at the time, it’s never coming to an end. I remember that when I was 23 years old. I thought I knew everything.”
At this point, there’s not much Santana hasn’t done. He’s hit 328 career home runs, and his stellar .353 career on-base percentage and .783 OPS ensures his phone in Tampa will ring each winter.
His notorious plate discipline is still there: Santana averages 4.11 pitches per plate appearance, just off the 4.15 for his career, nearly 8% higher than the MLB average during that time.
‘It’s always really important to have that veteran presence in the middle of the lineup, especially with how he takes his ABs – not necessarily the outcome but the approach, and that sets the tone for the whole lineup,’ says infielder Gabriel Arias, who had a career-high four hits Wednesday. ‘Our lineup gets a lot better when you see that type of veteran presence.’
Santana endured an 0-for-25 stretch last month and survived, now on an 11-for-35 run while reaching base each of the past 11 games. The Guardians – surprise winners of the AL Central a year ago – have flourished in that period, too, winning seven of 10 games to improve to 22-15.
‘We really feel like he’s starting to come into his own right now, and we’re seeing the ‘los who has 16 years in the big leagues,’ says Guardians manager Stephen Vogt. ‘He’s a great player, consistent, and we’re really excited how he’s starting to swing the bat.’
Santana is embarking on a quest for his seventh postseason appearance, and winning the final game of the season is one of the few things he hasn’t seen in this career.
‘An open book’
The man who once smashed a clubhouse TV to better focus his video game-playing teammates is perhaps a little more mellow now, or perhaps simply surrounded by professionalism.
He speaks freely of his baseball past, not in a “back in my day” fashion but rather imparting what he’s picked up through a vast array of diamond experience.
“It’s the stories he tells about different teammates and the places he’s been,” says Kwan. “He loves sharing them, and I appreciate that. With veterans like that, I’m a little sheepish to ask them for their secrets.
“But he’s an open book. I think that’s why he’s so beloved across the league.”
And perhaps that’s why Santana keeps coming back. Sure, a beloved personality helps, but simplicity in his off hours probably matters more.
It sounds so easy: “Drink a lot of water, sleep well,” he says. “That keeps me playing.”
Eight hours a night. An hour nap when the Guardians are at home. And above all, listening to a body that has served him well: Santana has spent just 31 days on the injured list since the start of the 2011 season.
That’s a model the youngsters can appreciate – especially when he’s still winning them games, and answering the bell, just a month after turning 39.
“He takes into account, too, that when you’re younger you’re going to fail and rely on your body to bounce back,” says Kwan. “As he’s had years in the league, he’s picked up things here and there and it’s culminated in where he is now.”
This post appeared first on USA TODAY
