RHP Tazawa looks to rebound with Nieves

JUPITER — As Junichi Tazawa transformed from inexperienced reliever working his way back from Tommy John surgery into a top-notch setup man — and as he started building the resume that helped him land a two-year, $12 million contract with the Miami Marlins this offseason — Juan Nieves was there.

The right-hander and the pitching coach worked together in Boston for two full seasons, 2013 and 2014, the two best full seasons of Tazawa’s career. His numbers have trended downward in the two years since but the Marlins are confident he can regain his old form, or something close to it, reunited with Nieves in South Florida.

“When you sign a guy, you bet on who you think he is right now,” manager Don Mattingly said. “We feel like he’s going to be there for us.”

To be sure, there is more to Tazawa’s peaks and valleys than Nieves’ presence or absence, but the Marlins figure their previously relationship can’t hurt. And they have ideas on how to get the most out of Tazawa, 30. Most of those ideas pertain to his usage. Nieves said Tazawa, who ranks among the top two dozen relievers in appearances the past four years (256), probably won’t pitch more than an inning at a time.

Tazawa also pitched primarily in the eighth inning of close games in his Red Sox days, situations often filled with high-leverage and high-stress at-bats. With the Marlins, on days everybody is available, Tazawa is probably fourth or fifth on the bullpen depth chart.

Nieves also said there are some “delivery issues we’re eventually going to get to” this spring. Among them are Tazawa’s arm angle, which has gotten too high.

“He’s navigating through,” Nieves said. “I think there’s a little bit of work to be done, but I think with the youth here, he’s a great complement for us. He could be used in a shorter role, less stressful innings.”

Tazawa’s ERA has gone up each of the past three seasons (2.86 to 4.14 to 4.17), as has his Fielding Independent Pitching marks (2.94 to 3.05 to 4.23). In 2016, his strikeout rate was a career-best 9.8 per nine innings but his walk rate was a career-worst 2.5 per nine innings. A poor second half in 2016 torpedoed what had been a promising start. Tazawa had a 5.19 ERA and 1.56 WHIP in 18 games after the All-Star break, in addition to spending 21⁄2 weeks on the disabled list with a right shoulder impingement. The Marlins — who like that Tazawa uses a splitter as his secondary pitch and has been effective against left-handed batters (.207/.275/.354 in 2016) — think they can work through those issues, in part, because of Nieves.