Facing long odds, Sacramento area’s Sam Long completes long comeback to Giants’ roster

The odds were against Sam Long when he signed with the Tampa Bay Rays as an 18th-round draft pick in 2016. Only six picks from that round have made the majors.

Odds were also against Long, a Sacramento-area native who pitched at Sacramento State, when he got released by Tampa Bay in 2018, stepped away from baseball, and re-enrolled at CSUS. The odds were against him when the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted his comeback and canceled the 2020 minor league season; and against him when he struggled as a rookie last year and earlier this season with the San Francisco Giants.

Tough odds haven’t mattered, though. The 27-year-old Long has become an unlikely success story for the Giants in recent months, converting from a starter to a bullpen role and beginning to thrive. Long sports a 3.00 ERA and 137 ERA+ through 22 appearances and has drawn praise for his willingness to work wherever needed, from one-out appearances to three-inning starts as a relief opener.

“He’s been able to come in in big spots and make starts and be really flexible and adaptable in our bullpen and he’s been a great addition,” Giants pitching coach Andrew Bailey said.

The road back to baseball

That Long even reached the majors, debuting with a four-inning, seven-strikeout appearance against the Texas Rangers on June 9, 2021, was a triumph.

Tampa Bay tried unsuccessfully to make Long a sidearm pitcher after drafting him, releasing him in March 2018. Long initially took EMT classes and re-enrolled at Sac State that fall, according to NBC Sports Bay Area in February 2021.

During his time back on campus, Long mostly stayed away from Sac State’s baseball team, though he spoke with former coach Reggie Christiansen after his release from Tampa Bay. “I just think he was in a place where he didn’t know what was next for him,” Christiansen told The Bee. “I think a lot of athletes go through that.”

Long also looked up Paul Martinez, who’d coached him at Rosemont High School his freshman and sophomore years and Del Campo his junior year. The two got dinner at Twin Peaks sports bar near Sac State in late 2018 with Long telling Martinez he was mulling a comeback. Martinez’s message: Dive in.

“I’m just proud of him as a person and the way he’s handled himself and the way he’s done it,” Martinez said. “I mean, I guess, if I had a small part of it, but he’s done so much of it on his own, where baseball kind of kicked him out and he said, ‘Nope, I’m getting back in.’”

Long – who grew up splitting time between his mother in Land Park, attending Crocker Riverside and Sutterville elementary schools and his father in Rancho Cordova – started by reaching out to a childhood friend Steven Talbert, who worked as a trainer at a facility that opened that year near Cal Expo, Optimum Athletes.

Long also had trained with Optimum Athletes founder and former big league pitcher Ryan Mattheus during his days at Sac State. Mattheus said Long arrived at Optimum Athletes around 170 pounds, which is 15 pounds lighter than his current listed playing weight.

“I think just getting bigger, faster, stronger, and looking like a professional baseball player was where we started,” Mattheus said.

Training during the 2018-19 offseason and a workout video that went viral led to a contract for Long with the Chicago White Sox organization in March 2019. While he pitched well in A-ball that year, the pandemic canceled his season in 2020, which made him struggle to keep his fastball consistent with the Giants in 2021, Long told The Bee.

He wound up with a 5.53 ERA last season and was out of San Francisco’s starting rotation by September. Long regrouped by doing more work at Optimum Athletes in the offseason, working two or three times a week with physical therapist Evan Hauger. Giants teammate and another local product Logan Webb, of Rocklin High School, saw Long at Optimum Athletes in late December.

“I got to see what he (had) been working on and it looked really good, so I was super excited for him,” Webb said.

The difference in 2022

Long initially shined this season, accruing a 1.00 ERA through May 1, according to Baseball-Reference.com game logs. After his ERA jumped more than two full runs in an appearance against the Dodgers on May 4, the Giants optioned Long to the Sacramento River Cats on May 6.

Long trained at Optimum Athletes while he was back in Sacramento, with Mattheus saying, “This kid shows up every single day and he does what he’s supposed to do. And he just knows that, ‘If I do that over the long haul, I’m going to reach my goals.’”

The Giants recalled Long on June 1, optioned him a second time to Sacramento on June 3, and recalled him for the most recent time on June 7.

Since returning to the Giants, Long has made 12 appearances. Long’s fastball, a four-seam, has jumped two miles per hour to 94.7 MPH, according to Fangraphs. “At times, he had the 95s in the bag last year, but I think we’re seeing it come out more frequently, in part because he really hasn’t been asked to start games and go into the sixth and seventh inning,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said.

Meanwhile, Long’s changeup is about 4 miles per hour faster at 84.4 MPH, with Long also regularly mixing in a curveball. “A hard-throwing lefty with two above-average offspeed pitches is pretty valuable for anybody, but it’s definitely valuable for us,” Giants assistant pitching coach J.P. Martinez said.

Kapler and his coaches stress that pitchers know their plan, pound the zone, and push the pace. On the last count, Long has become one of baseball’s best in recent years.

BaseballSavant.com measures a stat called tempo, which looks at the time between a taken pitch and the next pitch to the same batter. For this stat, Long was tied for first in the majors at 12.6 seconds between pitches when the bases are empty and was second at 18.7 seconds with runners on base.

“His pace has been awesome,” Kapler said. “He’s working really fast, he’s filling up the strike zone with all of his pitches, he’s making some adjustments on his position on the mound.”

Long wasn’t anything special for tempo last season, averaging 15.6 seconds with bases empty, tied for 33rd, and 22.1 seconds with runners on base, tied for 31st. Long and his coaches have worked to speed up his pace. Teammates have noticed the difference, too, with shortstop Brandon Crawford saying, “He’s fun to play behind, he works fast, and has three good pitches that he mixes really well.”

For his part, Long sees tempo as a competitive advantage, with Giants fielders not having to stand around as long. “I want to get those guys into the dugout and back to hitting,” Long said. “It’s kind of like a time of possession sort of thing with football.”

The road ahead

Long is known to teammates for keeping a soft-spoken demeanor with a good sense of humor. In the bullpen, he stays ready for a variety of assignments. “Sam seems to be calm and cool down there and just ready for whatever,” Giants reliever Tyler Rogers said.

Being up for anything has meant that Long has worked each inning from 1-9 this season, but never longer than three innings in an apperance. He’s interested in starting again, though he doesn’t appear to be stressing about it.

“I think when you start to guess like where you’re going to be used, it’s a little bit counterproductive instead of just focusing on being ready for whatever,” Long said. “Maybe down the road, it’ll be a little more specific, but right now, it’s just where we’re at.”

Long’s also really happy to have reached this point.

“It feels good, really good,” Long said. “Especially where I was at a few years ago, completely out of the game. So to see the whole transition and going through the process of getting to the major leagues and learning what it takes to stay around, it’s been an awesome experience. It’s taught me a lot about myself and what I’m capable of.”

He added, “But I’m doing my best to take each moment for what it is and enjoy every second.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2022 at 5:00 AM.