Strange, anxious winter ‘lit a fire’ in Cub bullpen hopeful

MESA, Ariz. — It got to the point during the winter where -David Rollins cringed every time he saw the area code of his employer pop up on his phone.

“Half the time, I’m like, ‘I don’t even know if I want to answer the phone,’ ” the left-hander said.

Meet the one man in Cubs camp who’s not dishing fake news when he claims to take his baseball -career one day at a time.

No less than six times since the end of last season, Rollins was waived by his team — twice by the Rangers, twice by the Cubs and once by the Mariners and Phillies. He finally cleared the last time, which ultimately cost him a 40-man roster spot, allowing the Cubs to keep him as a non-roster player.

“Yeah, it was rough,” he said. “It was just one of those things where I was just trying to figure out where I’m going to end up at. … The third, fourth, fifth, sixth time, it’s like, ‘All right, what are we going to do now?’

“It definitely plays mind games with you, that’s for sure.”

Rollins, who had a 7.60 ERA in 31 relief appearances for Seattle over the last two seasons, eventually took a chance and drove his truck 1,250 miles from his home in Texas to the Cubs’ training site earlier this month, only to learn two weeks ago he had been waived again.

After sweating out the possibility he might not wind up with a team in spring training, Rollins, 27, joins a crowded field vying for few openings in the Cubs’ bullpen.

This is a guy who was drafted in the 24th round, was part of a 10-player trade in his first year in the majors, became a Rule 5 pick of the Mariners when he was left unprotected by the Astros and in 2015 served an 80-game suspension for a failed drug test (apologizing to the Mariners and calling it a “serious error in judgment”).

What does his new manager know about him?

“I know he had a tough winter,” said Joe Maddon, who likes what he has seen from Rollins’ fastball and breaking ball early in camp. “He’s just one of those guys that probably needs more opportunity. I do like when we had our conversation. He’s a very confident young man.

“To be sought after by so many groups, there’s got to be something there.”

If not something extra after the last few months.

“It definitely toughened me up some more,” Rollins said, “and [gave me] kind of a little fire, too.”

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Email: gwittenmyer@suntimes.com