DUNEDIN, Fla. — Wind through the neighborhood streets, past Don’s Barber Shop and just beyond the elementary school, to find Florida Auto Exchange Stadium. A restaurant called Home Plate, “your neighborhood hangout,” is across the road. Hopefully, the white signs with Toronto Blue Jays logos on them, and arrows below, are sufficient guides.
A tight right from the clubhouse door is where Drew Storen now resides. His locker has the typical trappings of spring training: Multiple cleats, varied bags, discarded uniform parts. For most of his six years with the Washington Nationals, he wore a red or white No. 22. He’s No. 45 in blue now. The beard remains. The hat is still often spun backward.
The new digs are a bit of a puzzle. Storen was familiar with the Tampa area, about 25 miles east, but Dunedin, to him, is as foreign as it sounds. Storen has introduced himself to his new teammates. He’s learning who staff members are. He’s not sure where everything is.
“You take for granted kind of the autopilot of being in a familiar situation and knowing people,” Storen said.
Storen was traded to the Blue Jays in the offseason for center fielder Ben Revere. The swap ended one of the more curious six-year runs in a sport blessed with never-ending oddities. Storen was selected 10th overall by the Nationals in 2009, made it to the major leagues by 2010, became the closer and was removed as closer. He had good seasons and playoffs flops, then was removed as closer again despite a 1.73 ERA at the time. He also broke his thumb when slamming the lockbox at his locker in frustration. As it turned out, 2015 was a sack of rattlesnakes for Storen.
The organization taking away his closer’s role for the final time was an odd moment in a bust of a team season. Washington was floundering because of injuries and ineffectiveness, the latter often provided by the bullpen during the seventh and eighth innings. Acquiring Jonathan Papelbon backed the bullpen up. It moved Storen to a setup role, though he had only blown two saves in the first 93 games of the season. The Nationals were in first place by three games at the time.
Bringing in Papelbon was a test of logic and emotion. Storen, predictably, was not pleased. He met with general manager Mike Rizzo before the move. The next morning, he discussed the pending change with then-manager Matt Williams.
“My main thing was just to make sure we’re on the same page,” Storen said. “I understand the business side of things, and I get why things happen. Obviously, there was disappointment there from my end. If you are OK and not disappointed with someone coming and taking your job, then you shouldn’t be playing this game.”
Throughout his time in Washington, Storen was cooperative with reporters. Even after losses — some of them the rip-your-toenails-off pain variety — Storen would talk about what occurred. He was noticeably silent the first couple weeks after Papelbon’s arrival. Storen was aware there were no benefits to either delivering a storyline that everything is fine or grumbling about the change.
“There’s nothing that you can say in that situation that can make it any better or that’s not any different than [what the media] already knew,” Storen said. “So, it’s like, I can only do more harm than good in this situation.
“It wasn’t a knock against Pap or anybody upstairs or anything. There’s just some times where it’s not going to do you any good. If I get up there and I’m just kind of floating stuff out there like, ’Oh, I’m fine with it, I’m happy,’ that’s, I mean, c’mon. We’re competitors. I didn’t want to feed the beast or the drama. We’re in the middle of a race. I care about winning. That’s the No. 1 thing. I showed up and put my feelings aside. I don’t care how disappointed I was, I wanted to win.”
After an initial run where it looked like Storen and Papelbon would be lethal together on the field, Storen’s ERA rose, the lockbox was slammed and his season ended on Sept. 9. After the pre-trade meeting with Rizzo, Storen thought he could be traded in the offseason. He left Nationals Park thinking the same thing, which wasn’t much different than years past when he thought that might happen. Yet, he was also open to returning alone or with Papelbon.
“I don’t see why not,” Storen said. “I knew it was a possibility to be moved. But, why not? That’s kind of the way I looked at it. I didn’t care. I was preparing to go back, then I got the call.”
In Toronto, he’s jousting with Roberto Osuna for the closer’s spot. Storen is 28 now, moving to a country he had never been to, and trying to be an extra piece for a team that went to the American League Championship Series last season.
Showing the savvy of someone who operates in the bullpen, a spot that endures annual shuffling, Storen rented in Washington. His wife, Brittani, will be heading to Toronto first to set up their new rental in Canada’s marquee city. The Blue Jays leave Dunedin and go to Montreal for two exhibition games before returning to Tampa Bay to open the season. So, lots of organization will be on Brittani.
When Storen looks back at his seven years in Washington, he’s pleased. He also sounds like the ever-dwindling number of core guys left in the Nationals’ clubhouse, players like Ryan Zimmerman and Stephen Strasburg. When they showed up, Nationals baseball was a losing endeavor. Now, missing the playoffs gets managers fired.
“It’s positive stuff,” Storen said. “The group of guys that are there [are] awesome. That is the No. 1 thing for me. The guys in the clubhouse and what we created. Coming up in 2010, a 100-loss team. It’s night-and-day different there now. Being a part of creating that was special. When I got drafted with [Strasburg], that’s what I aimed for was to change that market and have the stadium fill up, and it did.”
Now, he’s just trying to find his way around Dunedin.
• Todd Dybas can be reached at tdybas@washingtontimes.com.
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