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Brookover: Asher's turbulent season also a successful one

CLEARWATER, Fla. - In late March of last year, Alec Asher got the news that he would start a third straight season at the double-A level. By mid-May, there was a call from the Major League Baseball Players Association telling the righthander, then 24, that he was about to be hit with an 80-game suspension for a failed drug test. A week later, while pitching for triple-A Lehigh Valley, he took a line drive off his leg that left him with a fractured shin.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - In late March of last year, Alec Asher got the news that he would start a third straight season at the double-A level. By mid-May, there was a call from the Major League Baseball Players Association telling the righthander, then 24, that he was about to be hit with an 80-game suspension for a failed drug test. A week later, while pitching for triple-A Lehigh Valley, he took a line drive off his leg that left him with a fractured shin.

So, of course, 2016 was the best season of Asher's career.

"Statistically, it was probably my best year," Asher said before a recent spring-training workout at the Carpenter Complex.

It was certainly one strange year, and by the time it was over Asher had solidified his standing as one of the upper-level prospects with a chance to pitch in the Phillies rotation before this season is over. In all likelihood, he will open this season at Lehigh Valley, but he'll begin to make his pitch for a spot in the big leagues when the Phillies open their Grapefruit League schedule Friday against the New York Yankees.

To fully understand Asher's peculiar journey through the 2016 season, you have to go back to 2015. At the trade deadline, he was sent, along with five other players, from the Texas Rangers to the Phillies for Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman. After four solid starts with Lehigh Valley, Asher earned a late-season call-up to the big leagues. He went 0-6 with a 9.31 ERA in seven starts.

The lesson learned was that he needed to do something different, and the Phillies coaxed him to start throwing a two-seam fastball that would move and sink.

"Coming up through the minors, I wouldn't say I was a power pitcher . . . but I was low to mid-90s and I would kind of get away at the lower levels with kind of just overpowering guys," he said. "Then I came up and got hit around and I kind of realized it doesn't matter how hard you throw it, if it's not where you want it, it's not going to go well.

"So we kind of talked about throwing a two-seamer. I never threw one before because I never had to and I never really got the movement I wanted with it. Last offseason, I really worked on it and it started becoming a viable pitch, and it has been great ever since."

Two things happened: Asher started throwing a lot more strikes and hitters stopped making solid contact.

"I always prided myself on being a good command guy . . . but last year throwing the two-seam instead of the four-seam gave me that little bit of a confidence to attack the zone even more," Asher said. "I knew if it was going to be hit, it would be weaker contact or a ground ball. It gave me the confidence to pitch more in the zone."

Asher was good at Reading to open last season and even better after being promoted to Lehigh Valley. But then the phone call came from the players association about the failed drug test. He had tested positive for an anabolic steroid, a drug identical to the one also found in former Phillies reliever Daniel Stumpf's body last season.

"Never in a million years would I think I'd be the guy," Asher said. "You get the call and you're like, 'Are you serious? This is me?' It was definitely a blow and something I never thought I'd have to deal with."

He swears he has no idea how he failed the test and he said he worries about it happening again.

"That's what scares the crap out of me," he said. "I worked out [in Clearwater] all [last] offseason because I don't live too far away in Lakeland. Every supplement I took was here at the field, and if you look at my body you can tell I'm not the kind of guy who takes a bunch of proteins and supplements. Anything I took was from them, so I don't know if it was a tainted substance or something my body produces."

Asher said he'd love to know how and why he failed the test.

"God, yes," he said. "I could care less about anything else other than clearing my name. I have played this game since I was 4 years old and I don't want people to think I cheated. That's the worst part to me, having people think you're a cheater."

Bad news got worse for Asher shortly after he found out about the first failed drug test. While awaiting a second test to confirm his suspension, he suffered the fractured shin in a start against Syracuse. The season was just over six weeks old and he had pitched well in nine starts with Reading and Lehigh Valley, but now he was rehabilitating an injury in Clearwater and serving an 80-game suspension.

"I figured the season is probably over," Asher said. "And then a couple of months into my rehab I got word that they wanted me to start throwing and get ready because there's a chance I could possibly go up in September and help out with some innings."

He was back in the big leagues on Sept. 8 for the first of five starts. He pitched six shutout innings and allowed just two hits against Washington to earn his first major-league victory. He went 2-1 with a 2.28 ERA. In 17 combined starts at four levels, Asher was 6-3 with a 2.34 ERA. That was followed by eight more strong starts during winter ball in the Dominican Republic.

"That was another confidence booster," Asher said of his winter ball stint. "I'm excited. I'm just ready to start pitching again. I feel like it's going to be a big year."

Perhaps, but it cannot be any more peculiar than the one he just completed.

bbrookover@phillynews.com

@brookob