Marinez steadies after bumpy journey
ST. LOUIS — Pirates pitchers Jhan Marinez and Trevor Williams, seated at their side-by-side lockers Sunday at Busch Stadium, are aware they share a strange commonality. Marinez mentioned it when the Miami Marlins visited Pittsburgh earlier this month. Weren’t you the pitcher, he asked Williams, the Marlins traded for a pitching coach a couple of years back?
Officially, Williams was sent to the Pirates Oct. 24, 2015, for minor leaguer Richard Mitchell, swapping the former second-rounder Williams for a Gulf Coast League pitcher who has since left professional baseball. Scuttlebutt soon surfaced saying the lopsided trade served as compensation for the Marlins hiring away pitching guru Jim Benedict from the Pirates.
Marinez could relate, though his trade was done entirely above board. As the 2011 season closed, the Chicago White Sox sent manager Ozzie Guillen to the Marlins for Marinez, then a 22-year-old Class AA pitcher, and Class AAA shortstop Ozzie Martinez. Marinez was home in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, when the phone call came.
“I was like, ‘What? I got traded for a coach?’ ” Marinez recalled Sunday via interpreter Mike Gonzalez. “In the beginning, it began to discourage me. Then I found a purpose. I noticed, hey, I’m still able to play ball.”
Marinez’s road from a trivia answer — a participant in one of the handful of manager-for-player trades in baseball history — to a productive member of the Pirates bullpen was bumpy. It involved Marinez, 28, pitching in the minors for seven organizations, debuting in the majors in 2010, returning briefly in 2012 and then waiting four years for another chance.
When Marinez threw a scoreless inning April 24, 2016, for the Tampa Bay Rays, it marked his first major league appearance in 1,303 days. It was an “exciting and emotional opportunity for me,” he said. Three weeks later, he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for cash. By the end of the season, Marinez had a 3.18 ERA and 50.3 percent ground-ball rate over 62⅓ innings.
“He got our attention because he was pitching well, and he wasn’t a guy that was a common, household name,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “We started looking. … When his name came up across the wires [this spring], we were still trying to identify a guy that we might be able to find to help as a ground-ball guy, come in and give us a shot in the arm.
“His skill set spoke to that, although the numbers this year didn’t.”
The Pirates plucked Marinez off waivers from Milwaukee after he posted a 5.40 ERA in 16⅔ innings. They put pitching coach Ray Searage to work, and Marinez improved quickly. In 20 innings for the Pirates, he has a 2.25 ERA. His ground-ball rate this season is 56.4 percent.
For someone accustomed to change, stability is a refreshing idea.
“Man, it became a routine — the norm,” Marinez said of trekking from team to team. “I’ve understood that that’s how baseball is. You never know how long you’re going to last, how long you’re going to be there. But my goal is to be here with the Pirates for a very long time.”
Polanco sits
Sensing Gregory Polanco, batting .242, was “a little disconnected at the plate” the past few games, Hurdle left his right fielder out of the lineup Sunday against St. Louis, bundling days off with no game Monday. Hurdle said the staff has some ideas of mechanical tweaks which might help Polanco.
“He had a few swings in Milwaukee that were good,” Hurdle said. “At the end of the day, the numbers are what they are at this point in the season. We know there’s a better hitter in there, and we’ve seen it, but we haven’t seen it for a consistent, long period of time.”
Time is up
In the final appearance of his rehabilitation assignment, reliever Antonio Bastardo (left quad strain) threw 36 pitches in the first inning for Class AAA Indianapolis and recorded only two outs. He was lifted with the bases loaded. Bastardo, making $6.5 million this season, was placed on the 10-day disabled list April 25 and has used all 30 days of his rehab assignment. The Pirates have not announced their plans for Bastardo.