Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Chen’s fresh start begins
Now healthy, starter looks to bounce back
JUPITER — Wei-Yin Chen needs only three words to summarize his first season with the Miami Marlins: “It was terrible.”
A year that began with a big new contract on a new team in a new league ended with Chen’s career-worsts in ERA (4.96), starts (22) and hits per nine innings (9.8). In the middle, he spent two months on the disabled list with a sprained left elbow.
The left-handed Chen is looking to put all that behind him in 2017, starting with one scoreless inning Tuesday against the New York Mets in his Grapefruit League debut. He faced the minimum three batters — infield single, lineout-turned-double-play and strikeout looking — and threw only nine pitches. A quick day’s work was a good day’s work. “It’s the first game of the spring, so I was trying to get back my command on my fastball,” Chen said through interpreter Louis Chao. “And I think I had decent command out there and only threw two offspeed pitches.”
There is no getting around Chen’s ugly first season in South Florida, but manager Don Mattingly found reasons to believe Chen will bounce back to something closer to his form while with the Baltimore Orioles (3.72 ERA in four seasons).
For one, Chen isn’t acclimating to a new environment anymore, so any discomfort that came along with his new surroundings should be gone.
And the Marlins won’t have to acclimate to Chen, either.
“I think it was a matter of us learning him,” Mattingly said of Chen’s struggles. “We have a better idea of how to keep an eye on him and be ready to pull that trigger a little quicker.”
Mattingly added that there were times when Chen was rolling well into the middle innings but “hit a brick wall” when things got out of hand in a hurry. Chen lasted into the seventh inning on eight occasions in 2016. He pitched a total of five innings from that point and allowed eight runs for a 14.40 ERA.
Mattingly suggested that sort of sudden drop-off might have been because Chen had trouble with the elbow that eventually put him on the DL.
Chen said he took a comebacker off the elbow on Opening Day, and throughout the season he would sometimes lose strength in his fingers or arm.
“So that might’ve been the cause of breaking down in one inning,” Chen said. “After the injury, I got treatment and rest. This year so far I don’t feel any discomfort.”
Dee’s cabin fever
By Day 3 of Dee Gordon’s conjunctivitis-induced seclusion from the Marlins, he couldn’t take it anymore. He had to do something.
That something wound up being going to a nearby Dick’s Sporting Goods, buying a hitting net and setting it up in the living room of his spring training apartment, Gordon said. Gordon’s cousin flipped him some balls so he could get his swings in.
“I do it all the time. I hit in my house,” Gordon said. “If you didn’t see me break anything, I didn’t break anything.”
Gordon’s indoor batting session came Monday, the day before his return to Roger Dean Stadium and the top of the Marlins’ lineup for an exhibition against the Mets.
Gordon still sounded sick — sinus issues, he said — but seemed to be over his pinkeye. His allergies flared up last week, and when the conjunctivitis hit Friday, his eye was swollen shut. He made a quick visit to the hospital for antibiotics.
“I could see, though,” Gordon said. “I never lost my vision. Even well it was swelled shut.”
Pink eye is contagious, and Gordon and Mattingly said a few members of the club caught it. So Gordon stayed away over the weekend and into this week, missing a trip to Fort Myers and missing a chance to play against his brother,
Nick Gordon, one of the Minnesota Twins’ top prospects.
There will be more chances for a family reunion, Gordon was sure, and not just when the Twins visit Jupiter on March 10.
“I heard he played well [Monday],” Gordon said. “It’ll mean more to us in the big leagues.”
Odds and ends
Don’t expect to see Brad Ziegler, the Marlins’ second most expensive offseason addition, too much during Grapefruit League action. The 37-year-old submarining righty will do a lot of his work on the back fields, Mattingly said, in part because Ziegler doesn’t want to face NL East foes this early.
“He’s a guy that we trust, as a veteran pitcher who has been around, that we’ll let him dictate his program a little bit,” Mattingly said.
Marlins relievers — not just the starters — are getting extra bunting practice this spring. Mattingly said that with a short bench, pitchers who are reliable bunters could be called on to pinch-hit on days they don’t pitch. A.J. Ellis was scratched from Tuesday’s lineup with a tight left hamstring. He felt the discomfort during a baserunning exercise. Ellis didn’t expect the issue to linger but wasn’t sure if it would hinder his plans to play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. “My first priority is to the Marlins,” Ellis said. “Way too early to make any decisions about [the WBC] or even speculate about that.”