ANAHEIM -- Zach Plesac is ready to change the narrative of his career.
Plesac, who officially signed a one-year deal worth $1 million on Saturday, showed plenty of promise upon arriving in the big leagues, posting 3.32 ERA in 171 innings with Cleveland from 2019-20, only to register a 4.72 ERA over the last three seasons while also dealing with a few off-the-field incidents.
Plesac, though, said he’s worked on himself, including seeing a psychologist, and also believes being a new father has changed his perspective. The 28-year-old came off as affable in his Zoom interview with the media on Saturday, explaining he has to learn how to channel his emotions better on the mound and not let the results get to him as much.
“There’s a lot of good steps that I've taken,” Plesac said. “So I'm really just putting that stuff behind me and looking forward to a fresh start, and having a passionate and positive energy. Because if you see me outside the lines, I’m very positive and happy-go-lucky, but when the lights come on, it’s a different beast. So I’m learning how to channel that into a positive way.”
Plesac said he's grown since being sent home by his team in 2020 when he broke COVID-19 protocols, saying it’s something he’ll have to carry forever but he learned from it. He also described what happened with two injuries that have often been reported as self-inflicted. He called breaking his thumb while "aggressively" taking off his jersey in May 2021 a freak injury, while his emotions got the best of him when he punched the ground and fractured his hand during a start in late August 2022.
“I think that COVID situation kind of rolled into the thumb injury that ended up [happening] the following season,” Plesac said. “It kind of got grouped together, but that thumb injury kind of happened on a freak accident. I was taking off my jersey and it got caught on the chair and thought I jammed my thumb but it ended up being a fracture.
“And the next year, I think a lot of what happened is I just let a lot of negative energy kind of pile up into a release that happened on the mound. I'm just a very passionate person, especially about the game of baseball. When you're out and between those lines, you aren't the same person you are when you're outside the lines. I'm just a fiery, competitive type of person and I’m learning to have that emotional awareness.”