Tejay Antone and Julian Garcia have proven they belong

Tejay Antone has always been extremely confident. You need to be to come back from three Tommy John surgeries. He’s a trailblazer who fought his way back to the big leagues.

Now, he has a 2.25 ERA through 32 appearances in the big leagues this season. Since May 18, he has allowed three total earned runs. The 32-year-old has become a go-to setup reliever for the Reds.

Is he better than he thought he’d be?

“I’m better than I thought I’d be,” Antone says. “I wanted to get up here and help the team win ballgames. I’ve been better than I was expecting right off of the jump. Now that I’ve done it, I’ve proven to myself that I can be as good. I want to be even better now. It’s really cool to be back and not have to think about injury or pitching around this. I’m just not there anymore. My mental state is trying to be the best pitcher in the world.”

The Reds’ bullpen has been a work in progress all year, and what the team has needed most is consistent right-handed arms. Antone is absolutely one of them. So is 31-year-old Julian Garcia, who has a 2.93 ERA through 11 appearances.

Exactly 11 months ago, Antone and Garcia were each placed on the Reds’ Double-A roster in Chattanooga. Antone had just ended his rehab assignment in High-A as he completed his comeback from a third Tommy John surgery. Garcia was signed out of Independent ball to give the Chattanooga Lookouts a fresh arm. Antone and Garcia were the two oldest guys on the team.

Here they are today, two steady pieces in the Reds’ bullpen.

“Neither one of them are backing down,” Terry Francona said. “They’re getting a chance. I’m not sure Tejay was ever sure he’d get another chance. He’s making the most of it. Julian is going out and competing. He knows he got a chance, and he’ll make the most of it. He’s certainly doing it. They’re both easy kids to root for.”

The Reds called Antone up from Triple-A on May 6. He had officially made it back to the big leagues from his injury, but then he was battling to stick in the big leagues.

“I had a clause in my contract that allowed them to option me to Triple-A, a 45-day clause,” Antone said. “Until that 45-day clause was up, I was fighting for a spot to stay on this team.”

He looked alright on the mound, but Antone allowed five runs in his first seven appearances.

Between May 18 and May 29, Antone only appeared in one game. The bullpen wasn’t very deep, but Antone still had to earn his way into high-leverage situations.

“You pitch when you’re called on,” Antone said, looking back at that stretch. “Whatever situation they call on you, that’s when you pitch. I’ve learned the hard way going into non-leverage situations and trying to treat it differently. Every out is precious in the big leagues. I prepared every day.”

A turning point for him was June 3 in a game against the Royals. The Reds’ bullpen was thinner than it had been all year. Francona turned to Antone in the eighth inning of a tie game. Antone got three-time All-Star Bobby Witt Jr. to fly out and then struck out nine-time All-Star Salvador Perez to end the inning.

As he walked to the dugout, he slapped his right elbow three times with his glove.

“It’s a reminder to myself and everyone else that I’ve been through it to get to this point,” Antone said. “Here it is. The guy with three Tommy Johns just beat you in that at-bat. It’s cool. It’s a fun thing.”

Antone kept stacking together strong games. The 45-day clause was due up near the end of June. It came and went, and Antone had more than earned his place on the roster.

“Once that clause was up, that allowed me to let go of that, get rid of my lease in Louisville and know I’m here to stay,” Antone said.

He doesn’t throw 100 mph like he used to — two surgeries ago — but he can spin his breaking ball for strikes better than he ever has. He says the key is his ability to locate that pitch in any quadrant in the strike zone at any time. Hitters may be sitting on the breaking ball, which he uses over half of the time, but he can still beat them with his command.

“Being able to throw strikes is super important in this game,” Antone said. “Commanding the baseball. Moving eye levels. Changing speeds. All of those things are vastly important to getting outs in the big leagues. I feel like I’ve done that very well, and I’ve proved that my health is back. That’s very important for my career going forward.”

Julian Garcia is doing the same thing.

In June, a taxed Reds’ bullpen trotted through a bunch of relievers. Yunior Marte, Zach McCambley, Luis Mey, Zach Maxwell, Lyon Richardson and Kyle Nicolas all got a chance before Garcia did.

Garcia, a true journeyman who was in Indy ball for two years, had to earn everything he got. When he was called up to the big leagues on June 22, he wasn’t overwhelmed by the moment.

“I knew that I could be a big leaguer,” Garcia said. “It just took longer than I expected. It’s been awesome. I want to keep it going. Day-by-day has been my mentality. It’s just baseball. That’s been my mentality. Go out there and treat it like another game and play catch with the catcher. Don’t make the moment bigger than what it is.”

Similar to Antone, Garcia throws a ton of breaking balls and throws them for strikes. Garcia’s fastball sits around 92 mph, but he knows his strengths and sticks to them.

“If you have a strength, pitch to it,” Garcia said. “Spinning the ball is my strength. Why would I do something differently?”

On Sunday, he earned his first career save.

“He’s starting to see it,” Antone said about Garcia. “He’s outplaying his own confidence, and he’s going to start leaning into it. As he spends more time studying the game… he’s so close. He’s really close. He’s really impressive. There’s nothing but the stars ahead of him.”

Recently, Garcia said that he was talking with a friend of his who’s around his age and is in Double-A. Garcia told the friend, “Don’t let that (age) put any limits on you.”

Garcia had to wait for his opportunity in the big leagues, but he was ready when he got it.

“Age is just a number,” Garcia said. “People put too much on it. I hear it all the time, ‘You’re 31, and you made your debut.’ Blah, blah, blah. Age is just a number. If you can throw the baseball and get guys out, if you’re 52 years old or 21 years old, you can play this game. As long as you can get guys out, there’s not any limit to it.”