Colorado Rockies: Daniel Bard talks about going from a coach back to a player

Those games of catch were a big reason why Bard is with the Colorado Rockies now.

In 2019, he said that he had some players tell him that they thought that he still had the skills to pitch in the majors.

“[When they told me that], I initially just completely laughed it off because [playing again] was so far from my mind…” said Bard. “A couple more guys said it and I did know that it felt really good, like the throwing felt different than it had for those five years when I was struggling.”

He worked this offseason to build himself up and he “continually kind of surpassed” his own expectations while building himself up. He then said that got to the point where “‘I think I have to do this,” like it wasn’t an option anymore where he thought he *had* to return.

While he thought he had improved a lot, he was still only throwing bullpens and playing catch, not facing live pitching.

“I knew that I could throw a baseball in the mid-90s again…but what I hadn’t done, I hadn’t faced hitters, I hadn’t faced major league hitters, I hadn’t thrown in front of a lot of eyes that mattered, I hadn’t thrown in front of fans, or anything like that,” said Bard. “…I couldn’t get on the mound, I couldn’t throw on a mound and throw strikes for five years consistently and now, I can…”

Then in February, he decided to quit his job with the Diamondbacks and try to make the leap back to the Majors.

“I didn’t want to feel it out, like with the Diamondbacks–I didn’t want to put them in an awkward position where I had one foot in [and] one foot out–‘Hey, can I throw some bullpens and kind of keep my job and see how it goes?” said Bard. “That’s just an awkward position to put them in. They deserve better than that so I made the decision to quit that job and, basically, inform them that I’m quitting and the reason I’m quitting is because I want to pitch again.”

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The D’Backs loss was the Rockies gain.

Bard said that he was initially hoping that it would be with the D’Backs since he was familiar with the organization but because of potential “conflict of interest[s]” because of the mentor role that he was in, the D’Backs and Bard decided to not go that route.

So, in February, just as Spring Training was starting, Bard had a tryout for a number of teams and one of those teams was the Rockies.

“Three days after quitting my job,” said Bard, “I was standing on a high school [pitching] mound in Scottsdale, Arizona with about 20 scouts that had showed up…[F]ortunately, I threw the ball really well that day and had several offers. It was kind of a crazy day.”

During the weeks leading up to summer camp, Bard said that he pitched to live hitters so, at least for his baseball career, the shutdown “was kind of the best thing that could have happened to me, baseball-wise” since it gave him more time to ramp up his pitching to make it big-league worthy.

Even though he “felt good” from the beginning of him playing catch with minor leaguers in 2018 and 2019, Bard said that he “didn’t that it would all happen this fast.”

You can check out Jim Rome’s interview with Bard below.

Bard has already made three appearances out the Rockies bullpen and, with the injuries that Wade Davis and Scott Oberg have sustained in the last week, now, Bard finds himself as part of the Rockies committee trio that Rockies manager Bud Black will turn to close out games.

Bard has already been one of the feel-good stories of the year in baseball but he can make it even more of a story with his new opportunity.