Starting pitchers continue to be undermined
PAWTUCKET – Edgar Olmos swears by a simple creed.
“He just wants the ball and pitch as long as he can in each outing,” PawSox manager Kevin Boles said about the lefthanded pitcher who by season’s end could be the 2017 version of Robby Scott, i.e. wear a lot of different hats for the TripleA ball club, sometimes doing so with very little notice.
Whether it’s as a starter, middle reliever, long reliever, or facing just a handful of batters, it doesn’t make a difference. Name the circumstance and chances are Olmos has already done it – and done so willingly.
For now, the 27-year-old is a member of Pawtucket’s rotation. Saturday’s start in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre will be his third straight starting nod.
What separates his anticipated outing with the RailRiders from the previous two nods is that it’s not in conjunction with a doubleheader. Awaiting Olmos is a full-fledged nine-inning test.
“I enjoy it a lot,” Olmos said when the subject of starting games was mentioned while sitting in the PawSox dugout earlier this week. “Any chance they’re going to give me to start, I’m going to take it.”
Getting the ball in a non-doubleheader situation points to how quickly Olmos has become an important figure in Pawtucket’s pitching plans. At a time when the team’s relief corps appears at maximum capacity while the starting pitching has that bare-bones feel as far as reliable major-league depth, Olmos is doing what he can to put himself on the map.
It takes a special breed to juggle a multitude of pitching roles at the TripleA level. Spend some time in Olmos’ company and it’s clear that he has the right mindset and the right attitude to handle any assignment. For instance, Olmos was informed by Boles inbetween games of a doubleheader at McCoy Stadium on June 7 that he would be following Hector Velazquez, who was scheduled to start but throw just one inning. Olmos took the mound in the second inning against Syracuse and turned in five shutout innings. He was efficient, needing just 50 pitches to record 15 outs.
Like Scott, Olmos relies on deception and brain power. His fastball sits around 90 miles per hour, but that didn’t prevent him from throwing it almost exclusively during the first few innings of this past Sunday’s start against Rochester. Later in the same outing, Olmos started to incorporate his off-speed pitches, which includes a curveball, a two-seam slider, and a change-up, a pitch he featured for the first time in three outings.
“It’s there. I just don’t use it as much,” Olmos said about his change-up. “Having that fourth pitch in your pocket is a huge plus.”
“He’s right when he’s getting hitters to put the ball in play early. That speaks to having trust that the stuff is going to play in the zone,” Boles said. “The fastball plays because there’s deception there, but he can throw all his breaking pitches for strikes early in the count.”
Olmos said the game-plan was to get the Red Wings to swing at pitches early in the count. He provided a PawSox team that for the third time in six days was involved in a twin bill with much-needed length with 76 pitches in six innings. Boles said the goal was to get between 65-75 pitches out of Olmos.
“He was efficient, but you also have to go by what your eyes are telling you,” Boles said. “The velocity was there [in the later innings versus Rochester] and he still had good command of his pitches.”
The last time Olmos was exclusively a starter was 2011 for High-A Jupiter of the Miami Marlins’ organization. He moved to the bullpen in 2012 after what he dubbed a “terrible year” – 6.63 ERA in 28 starts where he allowed 167 hits in 127.2 innings. Between 2012 and 2016, Olmos made just five starts, two coming in 2015 with the Seattle Mariners.
With Pawtucket, he’s been as dependable as they come. The relief-pitcher version of Olmos has posted a 2.51 ERA with 20 strikeouts in 28.1 innings while holding hitters to a .224 batting average. He’s proven just as stingy in 10 innings as a starter with a 0.90 ERA and a .162 batting average against.
Just as noteworthy are the three starts nods Olmos has earned. That speaks volumes to how much faith and trust he’s earned as opposed to the PawSox tapping the shoulder of a different guy each time an improbable situation arises.
“He’s had a variety of roles for us and it’s a credit to him for being able to handle everything,” Boles said. “He’s helped us out a ton, but that’s what he’s going to have to do. If he’s going to get looks from higher-ups, he’s got show that he can command his mix and give us length.”
Olmos is aware that through the exposure the PawSox have granted him, he’s in prime position to show the baseball world “that this guy can provide multiple innings be it as a starter, a reliever, or someone coming in to face one hitter. He’s someone who can do it all. Anybody who can do that, that’s a huge plus for any player.”