Segovia relishing latest opportunity
He's a 25-year-old right-hander with a 2-0 record for the Harrisburg Senators -- the Double-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals.
But Segovia didn't start the season in Harrisburg. In fact, he didn't even begin 2008 in the Nationals organization. He had been with the Philadelphia Phillies -- the team that drafted him in the second round (58th overall) of the 2002 Draft.
This year, he played seven games for Class A Advanced Clearwater before being promoted to Double-A Reading. Throwing only fastballs with the R-Phils, Segovia got roughed up. And after four appearances in which allowed nine runs in five total innings, the Phillies ended their five-year relationship with the Dallas native and released him after the All-Star break.
Still, nothing too far out of the ordinary.
Then he was signed by the Nationals, who sent him to Rookie ball -- a level he hadn't competed in since 2003. Six innings with the GCL Nats led the 6-foot-1, 220-pounder to five more at Class A Hagerstown, which gave way to 16 2/3 innings at Class A Advanced Potomac. With 13 strikeouts in three starts for the P-Nats, the organization moved him to his current team -- Harrisburg.
If you've been counting along, that's six teams in one season. He, his wife, their 7-month-old daughter and their dog changed locations almost as much in five months as Segovia had in the first five years of his career.
"It's been difficult on everybody. Me moving to a different team is really no big deal -- it's just the fact that we're moving to a different city or on the road. That's been the most difficult part," Segovia said. "You don't really ever know. You say, 'Yeah, I'll be here for. ... Oh, I guess not.' It's obviously frustrating for everyone, but it's good because I keep moving up."
Playing on six clubs in one season is trying enough for a healthy pitcher, let alone someone attempting to recover from offseason shoulder surgery.
"I expected to be better and healthy and I wasn't," Segovia said. "Spring Training was so difficult and I thought, 'Well, it's going to get better,' and it never really did. The only thing that was going to make it better was time."
Not only has Segovia started over from an organizational perspective, but also a physical one. It's that aspect of a journey he termed "crazy" that's been most arduous for him.
"Trying to remember your old motion and what you used to do, to me that's the most difficult part, getting familiar with yourself because you always seem to forget," he said. "Usually it ends up taking longer than you expect and it always seems way longer than it takes because you don't have the patience to wait on it."
Segovia's no stranger to injury. He had Tommy John surgery in 2004, which sidelined him for the entire season. The ailment was both a curse and a blessing because he met his wife, DeAnna, while recovering in Clearwater early in '05.
"I went out there and just got crushed," Segovia said of his 4-14 season following the operation. "I changed my delivery and figured, 'Everybody comes back from surgery and they're great, I'll just pitch here for half the year and I'll be fine. I'll probably be here for April, May and maybe the beginning of June, but I just got crushed. I basically went out there every five days and gave up three home runs a day."
Nothing was coming easy for Segovia, who finished that season with a 5.54 ERA.
"The hardest part about surgery is that you lose all that confidence and you have to start all over," he said. "You start off from nothing and all of a sudden you gradually get it back. It's easy to have confidence when you're successful and it's hard when you're struggling."
So instead of moving up, the seventh-ranked prospect in the Phillies organization remained in Clearwater and split the 2006 campaign between there and Reading. Finally, Segovia was settling into his niche.
"A couple times in big-league camp I got to pitch against the Red Sox and Yankees," he said. "That gives you confidence going into the year, like, 'I got to start against the Red Sox and I faced Manny Ramirez and Coco Crisp.' It was like, 'If I can pitch against these guys, I'm pretty sure I can handle the Florida State League.'"
He did, going 5-1 with a 2.19 ERA and finishing the year at Reading with an 11-5 record and 3.13 ERA.
Then came 2007 -- another remarkable chapter in Segovia's career -- which began with him making the Phillies out of Spring Training and debuting in the Majors on April 8. He pitched five innings, allowing five runs on eight hits.
Following that outing, Segovia was unceremoniously optioned to Triple-A Ottawa and never returned to form. He went 1-9 with a 6.05 ERA in 13 starts for the Lynx. During his time in Ottawa, he was also being bounced between the starting rotation and the bullpen, further complicating his physical situation.
The thing is, he knew exactly why he was struggling.
"My arm was killing me that year. I went to Triple-A and didn't say anything because I figured that since I was the guy who made the team out of Spring Training, I'd be the first guy to get called up as soon as someone got hurt," Segovia said.
"And I would have been had I done even halfway decent, but my arm was killing me. Once I got to like 30 pitches, I couldn't throw strikes or had to lay it over the plate. That was just a rough year."
Again, Segovia needed surgery -- an operation he is just now fully recovering from.
"I should have said something when it actually hurt, but it was hurting in Spring Training and I was doing well," he said. "They were like, 'Hey, you're going to make the team,' and I was like, 'Well, then, my shoulder's fine.'
"I mean, what 23-year-old is going to say, 'Yeah, my shoulder hurts' when he's about to make the big-league team. Nobody. Nobody's going to say, 'Yeah, I'm kind of sore, kind of stiff.'"
One year later, Segovia's maturity and brief Major League experience are what's helping him through this grueling season.
"It gives you the confidence that each time you go out there, even though there's so many things that work against you, that I've done this and I know I can do it," Segovia said. "I just have to prove to these people that I can do it again. And I know I can. It's confidence."
Through all the peaks and valleys in his career, Segovia still maintains a positive outlook on his future and is moving quicker than he ever has through the Minor League ranks -- a voyage that could produce an end result of finally being able to settle down in one place.
"I've seen a lot of people who start to doubt themselves and they don't have a chance," he said. "I can get that way too. I just have to remember that I've been in the big leagues. It's not a mirage, it's really there."