The pressure Griffin Jax is destined to face in his first foray into the MLB postseason is unlikely to stack up with what he faced in the preseason.

The Minnesota Twins reliever, Air Force graduate and Greenwood Village native welcomed his first child, daughter Avery, two days before Opening Day, making for a spring training spent on edge.

With wife, Savannah, too far along in her pregnancy to travel, Jax had moved her to Minneapolis before he reported to Florida for a month and a half of spring training.

“It was the weirdest timing,” Jax said Friday in his first trip to Coors Field since a showcase event as a star at Cherry Creek High School.

Savannah was given contact numbers to everyone from the Twins travel secretary to the team’s head trainer to manager Rocco Baldelli in case he needed to be reached on short notice. Jax bought a week’s worth of flights over the final days — “They were refundable, thank goodness!” — and then just had to hope everything would work.

It did.

Service academy athletes figure to see direct path to pro sports removed by provision in defense spending bill

Jax returned to Minneapolis. Labor was induced on the due date. An emergency (but flawless) C-section followed and Jax was able to join his team for the season opener in Kansas City two days later.

“It added a little stress to the year,” he said. “But she’s been nothing short of exceptional and a lot of fun.”

So, too, was the baseball that followed and will continue Tuesday as the Twins open the AL wild card round against the Toronto Blue Jays.

‘Fully believe’

The biggest adjustment to Major League Baseball for Jax, the first (and so far only) service academy graduate to reach this stage, stretched far beyond his specific pitching role.

“Being able to slow down and breathe and fully believe that you belong there took a little time,” he said.

Jax has made that adjustment, and for the first time this year entered a season knowing his role would be out of the bullpen and not the rotation.

That knowledge allowed him to gear his offseason work in that direction. Weight training included more high-intensity, short intervals and he didn’t need to prepare his arm for the length of long starts.

Former Air Force pitcher Griffin Jax becomes first Falcon to reach MLB

He tweaked his pitch arsenal, leaning on a four-seam fastball, slider and changeup, with a sinker thrown in against righties. The curveball has been dropped, as has his cutter.

The results have been evident.

He appeared in a team-high 71 games for the Twins, posting a 3.86 ERA with four saves and 23 holds, which ranks ninth in the American League. He struck out 68 batters in 65 1/3 innings while walking 19 and surrendering 58 hits.

All but two of his appearances have come in the seventh inning or later, and in high-leverage situations (as defined by Baseball-Reference.com) he is holding opponents to a .203 batting average.

In short, when Minnesota needs to protect a late lead, manager Rocco Baldelli gives Jax the ball.

An important vote of confidence from Baldelli came early in the year when Jax hit a rough stretch, including a blown save against the Los Angeles Angels.

“The guy’s got good stuff. He can miss bats,” Baldelli said. “Gaining some confidence in the pitch mix that’s going to work for him is also a part of it, too. He’s grinding a little bit, but we’re going to grind along with him and help him get where he needs to be.”

Jax said that the roster continuity with the Twins has also helped him navigate high-stress situations in games.

“I think that takes a little bit of pressure off of it when you’re playing with the same group of guys for the season,” Jax said. “I think not having to deal with a ton of new faces can help a little bit.”’

Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black said he saw this talent from Jax from the time he first saw him pitch during the 2016 season.

Black was serving as a scout for the Los Angeles Angels and was asked to watch Jax throw for Air Force in a series at San Diego State.

“I said, “Whoa, good arm,” said Black, who made sure Jax was placed high on a list of draft-worthy pitchers that year.

“Sure enough,” Black said, “Four or five years later, I was like, ‘Hey, that’s the guy I went and saw at San Diego State!’”

But when Black saw him again, Jax – the 2016 Mountain West Pitcher of the Year – had been converted into a reliever, which was never in the righthander’s plans.

Then again, nothing along Jax’s path has followed a charted course.

‘I am catching back up’

The Twins drafted Jax in the third round following his junior year at Air Force. He signed for a slot-value $645,000 bonus and set off a multiyear roller-coaster ride.

At the time he was drafted in 2016, Department of Defense policy allowed service academy athletes to turn pro immediately after graduating. By signing, Jax gave up eligibility to play for Air Force as a senior, but he was obligated to remain through graduation. He knew this would be the case when he signed. During that time, however, the policy changed. Athletes no longer had the option of going pro without first serving and Jax was commissioned as an officer, squeezing several weeks of baseball into the summers of 2017 and 2018 into his leave time.

His lone full season in the minor leagues came in 2019, when he posted a 2.90 ERA across 23 starts in Double-A and Triple-A and earned an invitation to the Twins’ major league camp for spring training in 2020.

Air Force grad Griffin Jax riding out coronavirus in Colorado, staying in shape for Minnesota Twins

COVID-19 restrictions shut down that spring training and Jax didn’t throw a pitch that year. He used that time to complete a master’s degree in Business Administration with a focus in marketing and data analytics from Colorado State. In January 2021, he and Savannah were married.

“For sure,” Jax said when asked if there were times he doubted the major leagues were in his future. “There were some tough obstacles to get over. The main reason was because nobody had really done this before and, thankfully I had some people fight for me and put some things in place to help me get through those obstacles, but I missed a lot of time.

“I feel like I am catching back up to where I was and to what I was used to, performance-wise. I’d like to think now is where I was supposed to be in 2021.”

It was during the 2021 season the Twins called him up. He debuted June 8 and threw 82 innings that year, primarily as a starter, going 4-5 with a 6.37 ERA in 82 innings.

With his education in data analytics, he understood what the Twins were seeing. The statistics showed that hitters batted .175 against him in the first time through the order, .283 the second time and .360 the first time.

The Twins informed him in spring training of 2022 that he would be moving to the bullpen. He was then optioned to the minor leagues to start the season, but an injury prompted his immediate callup and he was tasked with learning the bullpen role at the big-league level.

He said the news of a change in career course was difficult to accept at first, but he knew he’d rather be a major league reliever than a minor league starter.

“Of course it would be nice,” Jax said when asked if he’d like to eventually return to the rotation. “But I think at this point where I’m finding the most success and what I enjoy now is those high-leverage, end-of-the-game innings with a lot of adrenaline, a lot of pressure on you.

“Starters make a lot more money than relievers do, but I’m having a good time where I’m at. If I keep playing and stay healthy I’ll have a shot at making some pretty decent money myself. I’ll be alright.

“I’m appreciative of how I got here and the work it took, and I think it’s definitely made me a better player.”

Jax is still serving in the Air Force as a reservist, with his job focusing on recruiting and sharing his story with groups.

The ups and downs and uncertainty, not to mention the training at the Air Force Academy, has helped him deal with the pressure and anxiety of pitching in tough situations in the major leagues. And he knows that will amped up at this point in the season.

“I anticipate a little more emotion and adrenaline in the playoffs,” he said. “It will be eye-opening.”

‘Time to shine’

Jax figures his “time to shine” will arrive at some point in October.

This has nothing to do with the impending playoff run.

With Avery’s birth coming so close to the season, Griffin has assumed a secondary role with the hands-on portion of parenting with Savannah, also an Air Force graduate, taking on the bulk of the day-in, day-out — or night-in, night-out — responsibilities.

For the most part, he handles middle-of-the-night issues only on off-days. But after the season, he’ll be the first to rise when Avery needs something in the night.

“We have so much fun during the day, but my wife likes to say that I only see the highlights and I don’t have to do the dirty work,” Jax said. “I change diapers and I get spit up on and all of that stuff, but I’m not there at 3 in the morning when she needs help to go back to sleep. So it will be good for me and for her and our relationship.”

Of course, that all waits until the Twins’ playoff run comes to an end. So…

“I want to play as long as we can,” Jax said, laughing.