A.J. Cole strives for perfection on the mound

VIERA, Fla. | Long and self-critical answers followed A.J. Cole’s first spring start for the Washington Nationals last Thursday. Cole had walked two, given up four hits and generally wobbled against the New York Mets. His dissatisfaction afterward was evident.

His fastball was not controlled how he preferred. The right-handed Cole is working on a slider this spring, and that was not cooperating either. The 1 2/3 innings against the Mets in Port St. Lucie would be remembered and forgotten. He wanted the reminder of failure as a prod for further work. He also didn’t want to swallow the outing and have it rot inside, despite his level of personal irritation.

“There is always room for improvement,” said Cole, who is among the Nationals’ top prospects. “To me, you are never good enough. There’s always something you can work on. Nobody’s ever told me, ’Hey, you are too hard on yourself,’ or anything like that. They’ll say, ’Hey, you did a good job.’ I’ll take that, then I’ll go fix it on my own.”

When Cole arrived at spring training, he was on the cusp. That is where, barring injury, he will remain. His next step is blocked, for now, by a rotation that has been measured in historical terms before the season even begins.

He will most likely return to the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs to start the season. Cole and his mid-90s fastball went 7-0 in Syracuse last season after 14 starts at Double-A Harrisburg.

Knowing the Nationals were so stacked in the rotation did not slow Cole’s work in the offseason. He said he worked out every day. Despite the prevalence of fishing throughout his home state, the Winter Springs, Florida, native chose to hunt instead of hit the water when not strengthening his lanky 6-foot-5 frame. The same drive for perfection that followed his start Thursday fueled his offseason.

“I understand how the game works,” Cole said. “I’m hard on myself to a point. I understand that being too hard on yourself, you can actually do damage to yourself and that sort. I know when I’m going too far and being too hard, so I’ll back off and understand, ’Hey, I might not have had the best outing, but there’s good things in there.’”

His manager agreed. As Cole said others told him in the past, Nationals manager Matt Williams thought Cole pitched well Thursday despite of his harsher appraisal. In particular, he noted Cole’s ability to resolve the jams he created during the first two innings. He also offered a sage take and praise for his young pitcher’s self-critique.

“It’s never easy because everybody wants to be perfect,” Williams said. “The problem is, perfection is unattainable in this game. That speaks to desire, though. The fact he wants to be good, that he prides himself on being good. I’m impressed by the way he got out of the inning in a jam there. I like that. I think it’s great. He’s going to find himself in that position during his career again, and he’ll have the tools to get out of it.”

Three days after his start, Cole wrapped a bullpen focused on staying “straight through” his pitches. He also continued to grapple with that slider. Cole is hoping to develop it to a point where it’s a swing-and-miss, or, in the least, a weak-contact pitch for him. Once he understands the action of the pitch and sees what kind of swings there are against it, he’ll begin managing what counts to use in.

Cole’s locker is at the far end of the clubhouse, where he is huddled together with other young pitchers. At the opposite end of the same locker series are the metal homes for the Nationals’ vaunted staff: Offseason prize Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, and Doug Fister. Cole has pulled up a stool on the outer edge of the lockers when the group that is likely responsible for sending him back to Syracuse for another season chats. He’s listening, and, on game days, watching.

“Just the way they go about pitching the hitters,” Cole said. “Because you have everybody that is a pitcher [versus being a] thrower. Being a pitcher gets you really far in the game and learning how to pitch certain hitters, what situations, counts, runners on base. They all pitch differently and it’s nice to watch.”

A slim option for Cole, 23, is to make the big-league team as part of the bullpen.

“I don’t really have a certain opinion on what I’m going to be [in the future],” Cole said. “I’m still young. Anything can change, anything can happen. I love starting. But, at this time, I’ll do anything they really want me to do.”

Cole is part of the reason the organization has been able to align itself for another effort with many of the same parts from a year ago. Zimmermann and Fister are in the final year of their contracts. The Nationals could have gambled on Cole and traded Fister or Zimmermann in the offseason. Instead, Washington will start the season with the veterans still in Washington.

Which, for another summer, likely means a trip back to New York for Cole while the Nationals take another shot at the World Series. He’ll have to hone his slider and manage his assessments there.