Conversations with the Herd: Dillon Tate

By: Brian Frank

Dillon Tate grew up in Claremont, California. As a teenager, he played summer ball at Major League Baseball's Urban Youth Academy in Compton, California.

“The experience was unlike anything I've ever had as a kid at that time, because a lot of your coaches were former major league players” Tate told The Herd Chronicles. “My pitching coach, for example, was Carl Nichols, and he was a former catcher for the Astros. Lorenzo Gray was another one of my coaches. But, yeah, I was just thankful to learn the game from people that had already done it before at the highest level. It was a place where I could get reps as well. The basis of that place is to get kids into the game of baseball. I was incredibly thankful for that opportunity that I was able to experience.”

Tate is from Claremont, California. Photo Courtesy of the Buffalo Bisons Baseball Club

After graduating from Claremont High School, Tate attended the University of California, Santa Barbara. He became the team’s closer his sophomore season and finished with a miniscule 1.45 ERA, while racking up 46 strikeouts in 43 1/3 IP and collecting 12 saves.

“I guess at the time I was throwing the ball well prior to the season starting, but it just gradually got a little bit better and a little bit better each time that I toed the rubber,” he said of how he became the team’s closer. “And I think everything just kind of starts out as a trial run. Even if you do win the job, everything is always up for grabs. I just think it was something that was one of those things where I was just able to build up some momentum and keep it, really.”

His junior year, he became a starting pitcher and had another great season, posting a 2.26 ERA in 14 starts, and fanning 111 batters while walking only 28 in 103 1/3 IP.

“There was a starting pitcher that we had, he rolled his ankle prior to the season starting, and I just said that I'll go out there and throw those innings,” he remembered. “It was really just to see how it would shake out – and it was fine. So, they rolled me out there for another and another and another, and that's how it was.”

Tate was selected as the fourth overall pick in the 2015 MLB Amateur Draft by the Texas Rangers. A little over a year after being drafted, he was one of the prospects the Rangers traded to the New York Yankees in a deal for nine-time All-Star Carlos Beltran.

“I just remember feeling a little upset, a little angry, just because I was just drafted by (the Rangers) and then traded away,” Tate recalled. “But I mean, eventually I ended up learning it’s just part of the business side of the game. I got over it – and going to a new organization was fine. That org (the Yankees) was great. They treated me well. I got a lot better. The attention to detail was really high. so that was really important for a guy like me. Just a very important part of the developing stages in my career.”

After being a starting pitcher during his time with the Rangers, the Yankees initially moved Tate to the bullpen.

“At the time that was more of like a reset, just because starting in pro ball wasn't going very well – and there were just a lot of adjustments that were brought to my attention that weren't really clicking,” he explained. “And the bullpen, once I went over to the Yankees, was their way of just being able to reset me. Don't think about anything and just go out there and throw.”

Tate came to the Blue Jays organization last September. Photo Courtesy of the Buffalo Bisons Baseball Club.

The move to the bullpen was only temporary and Tate moved back into a starting role the next season. He had a 2.62 ERA in nine starts at High-A Tampa, before being promoted to Double-A Trenton, where he had a 3.24 ERA in four starts. His success in the rotation continued in 2018, when he posted a 3.38 ERA in 15 starts at Trenton – but suddenly he was changing organizations again. Tate was one of three prospects sent to the Baltimore Orioles’ organization in the deal that sent two-time All-Star reliever Zach Britton to the Yankees.

“At the time, when I got over to the Orioles, they were getting ready to go through a transition with their front office and I just remember things were a little behind as far as technology goes,” he said. “The way that things were done in the organization was just different than the previous organization that I was with. The amenities may not have been as extensive as the  – again, that was another piece that was crucial for my development at that point in my career. So, it was definitely a blessing that I didn't even really recognize at the time once I was traded.”

He made his major league debut in 2019 and ended up  making 16 relief appearances for the Orioles that season. In the truncated 2020 campaign, he made 12 trips out of the Orioles bullpen, in a season when fans weren’t allowed in ballparks due to the pandemic.

“In 2019 I got a taste of what it was like,” Tate said. “Then in 2020, it was baseball in its purest form. Nobody else in the stands, just the players. So, I think that allowed me to see the game in a little bit more in a simple light. I was, at that time, trying to figure out how my stuff stacked up against not just other people in the division, but just around the league in general. I think it allowed me to see how my stuff stacked up, just in a simplified environment. So, it was something, again, that was really crucial for me going forward.”

In 2021, Tate played an even bigger role out of the Orioles bullpen, pitching in 62 games. In fact, he even pitched in major-league games at Buffalo’s Sahlen Field. Tate pitched in downtown Buffalo when the Orioles played the Blue Jays in both 2020 and 2021. He pitched here twice in 2020 and twice in 2021, for a total of seven and one-third innings pitched in the big leagues at the corner of Washington and Swann.

“The only thing that was really strange was the clubhouse at the time, because it was outside of right field, and the weight room was also out there,” he said of being a visiting major-league player in Buffalo. “It was a clubhouse that was just kind of built last minute, but that was the only strange thing about it, everything else was just baseball.”

On the Sahlen Field mound with the Orioles. Photo Credit: Brian Frank, The Herd Chronicles

In 2022, Tate had his best season in the big leagues. In 67 relief appearances, he had a 3.05 ERA, striking out 60 batters and walking only16 in 73 2/3 innings pitched.

“In 2019, 2020, and 2021 the book on me was going to be – throws a sinker, a hard slider and a changeup, maybe a four-seam every now and then,” Tate said. “Then, in 2022 it was sinker, slow slider, changeup. So, I think when there's an adjustment that I make and nobody else knows about it until they're facing you in real time, then there's a big gap, because it's not in the report. What you talked about prior to the game is not what's actually happening during the game. I think that gave me a little bit of a step ahead of the competition. So, as the games go on, they're saying, okay, well, he's actually doing sinker, slow slider, changeup, and that's different from what the arsenal was previously. So, it just gave me a few steps ahead of the competition.”

Unfortunately, prior to the start of the 2023 season, Tate suffered a right elbow and forearm injury, causing him to spend the year rehabbing. He didn’t make it back to Baltimore until the following season.

“It was really, really frustrating just because you're not able to help anybody, and it's more of a mental thing than it is physical,” he said of his time rehabbing. “Physically, it's going to be what it's going to be, but your wheels are kind of still spinning once you go home and you're done for the day. So, that's when things can get tough. And then you only have X amount of throws that you can make each day, and then they don't feel right. So, then you're just kind of searching each time that you do go out there and play catch and get the ball, and then you can just feel like you're really far behind because you've been searching for so long, rather than knowing what needs to happen. But knowing what needs to happen and then being able to execute what you need to are two completely different things, because if your body's not agreeing with you, then you're going to figure out a different way to do it. So, you end up doing it a different way, and then your body doesn't agree with that, because it's not the way that your body's supposed to move. I think that's what a lot of people don't understand, is that there's a certain way that it's supposed to be done physically with your body. But what people don't understand is that the guys that are out here can do it about 500 different ways, but those other 499 different ways aren’t conducive for the way that your body's supposed to work, and then bad things start happening to your body, and then you're not able to go out there and do what you're supposed to do.”

Tate has a 1.93 ERA with the Herd. Photo Courtesy of the Buffalo Bisons Baseball Club.

Tate was claimed by the Blue Jays organization off waivers from the Orioles last September and pitched in four games last season for Toronto. He re-signed with the Blue Jays in the off season and has been one of the top arms out of the Bisons’ bullpen this summer. He currently has a 1.93 ERA in 23 relief appearances for Buffalo, recording 30 strikeouts in 28 innings pitched.

“I like the autonomy that I have here to be myself and figure out things at my own pace,” he said of re-signing with Toronto. “I'm not going to take that away from any other org, it's just that I really felt the freedom to go about doing the work in the fashion that I wanted to do it here. I'm able to have that two-way street here, which is nice. There are times where I want to do things on my own, and then there are times where I need some direction. So, I kind of have the best of both worlds here. Then on top of that, they treat you really well here, and it's filled with good people. So, I really can't complain about that. This has been a blessing.”