The good and bad 18 days
Until opener Hill, Velasquez give hope for staff
BRADENTON, Fla. — Nearly a month down, still 2 1/2 weeks to go. Throughout Pirates spring training, we’ve seen plenty of stuff, goodand bad.
Without any delay, here are 10 observations from Piratesspring training. Some are good, some sit at the opposite end of the spectrum, and otherscontinue to evolve.
The good
1. Some young outfielders haveimpressed.
Canaan Smith-Njigba, Cal Mitchell and Travis Swaggerty are obviously in the middle of a crowded competition after offseason moves to bring in Andrew McCutchen and Connor Joe, but they haven’t been pressing. They’ve actually been quite productive.
Entering Saturday, SmithNjigba was sporting a .429 onbase percentage and was tied for second on the team with fiveRBIs. Mitchell was hitting .273, while Swaggerty homered for the second time this spring Friday against the Phillies.He, too, has five RBIs.
After making his MLB debut and seeing action in five games last season, Swaggerty has been pushing for a longer look with some strong play this spring.
“It was just motivation for me not getting to go back up,” Swaggerty said. “I really, really got after it and made sure that when I get there, I’m readyto compete.”
2. Many of the veterans havecome as advertised.
Rich Hill has allowed one run in five innings in his first two starts, filling up the strike zone and holding opposing hitters to a .167 average. been especially good forsome of the younger pitchers on the staff.
Meanwhile, Vince Velasquez has also allowed one run in five innings. Opponents are batting just .118 (2for 17) against him.
Austin Hedges has been tremendous at mentoring the Pirates’ young catchers and working to learn and guide Pittsburgh’s pitching staff. Carlos Santana has made it his job to look after younger Latin players such as Rodolfo Castroand Oneil Cruz.
3. Speaking of those two, it looks like they could be the Pirates’ double-play combination to start the season. Castro was tied for the team lead with six RBIs. Cruz has four and has homered twice. They’ve both been good defensively. Exactly what you wantto see.
4. The pitchers the Pirates have coming in Triple-A have been better than expected — and not just Quinn Priester or Mike Burrows. Two of the better young arms we’ve seen have been Kyle Nicolas and Carmen Mlodzinski, who should bump up fromDouble-A. They’ve combined to workHe’s 8 1/3 scoreless innings, with just two hits allowed, four walks and seven strikeouts. There’s been no shortage of confidence, either. 5. The pitch clock and new rules should absolutely benefit the Pirates. Not only do they have four of MLB’s top 60 in terms of 2022 pitch tempo — Mitch Keller, Hill, JT Brubaker and Roansy Contreras — but the lack of shift, pickoff rules and bigger bases have emphasized athleticism and the resurgence of the running game. Between Cruz, Ji Hwan Bae, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Castro and a couple others, the Pirates should run plenty this season.
The concerning
1.The bullpen is banged up —already.
Robert Stephenson is
throwing side sessions, which is technically an improvement. But he has not yet thrown to hitters, and it sounds like best-case scenario he’ll get into some sort of game action at the end of spring training.
He may be ready for opening day, but it sounds like a stretch.
Meanwhile, Jarlin Garcia hurt his left arm so badly that he currently can’t grip a baseball. Doesn’t sound good for their best/only lefty they expected to handle high-leverage innings.
2. Some younger prospects haven’t exactly been lights out.
Jared Triolo, added to the 40-man roster this offseason, is 0 for 16. Tyler Heineman (.091), Ryan Vilade (.125), Miguel Andujar (.167) and Ji Hwan Bae (.176) also haven’t done much offensively. That second group has a combined one extra-base hit.
3. Strikeouts are a little high in places. Sure, it’s nitpicking, but Jack Suwinski (10) and Castro (8) have been victims of the swing-andmiss.
For the zillionth time, it’s spring training.
The developing
1. Before Saturday’s game, it would’ve been fair to worry about Bryan Reynolds or McCutchen, who were hitting a combined .234. But after Reynolds went deep against the Yankees — a 405-foot bomb that looked more like typical Reynolds — McCutchen had two hits, well, maybe they’re starting to find it.
Santana (.176) has been quiet outside of his home run and Ji-Man Choi got off to a slow start. But, again, it’s rarely worth worrying about at this point.
2. Johan Oviedo is in an interesting spot after looking really good Saturday in three scoreless innings. He had struggled in his two prior outings, but this was a different version of Oviedo. The good one.
If he pounds the strike zone like this, Oviedo deserves to be up with the big club. But where? Pirates manager Derek Shelton said they haven’t talked about a six-man rotation, which is what it would seemingly take.
3. The here-we-go-again groans were evident when it was revealed that Hayes was nursing a sore left thumb, but this may have actually been a good thing. He hit pause now so he didn’t miss a bunch of time later.
This much is less debatable: The swing Hayes took was outstanding. Perfectly on-time. Took advantage of a misplaced changeup. Crushed the ball at 106 mph for a homer. Also smoked a liner back up the middle in the fourth inning.