Former Mercer CC standout Fillmyer called up by Royals
It seems like an eternity ago Heath Fillmyer was trying to make it as a shortstop for Kean University and oh how things have changed in those six years.
Everything he went through since then culminated on Tuesday when the Florence High and Mercer County Community College product was called up by the Kansas City Royals to replace closer Kelvin Herrera, who was traded to the Nationals on Monday. Fillmyer was in the bullpen and available for relief against the Rangers.
The 24-year-old righthander’s stats at Triple A Omaha were not sterling, as he was 4-5 in 13 starts with a 1.63 WHIP and 5.75 ERA. But former Major Leaguer Chris Pittaro, the Special Assistant to Oakland A’s General Manager David Forst, realizes that stats don’t tell the full story of Fillmyer.
Pittaro, a Steinert grad who still lives in Hamilton, had watched Fillmyer pitch for Mercer and was part of the cross checking process when Oakland made him a fifth-round draft pick in 2014. A year later, Pittaro went out to watch Fillmyer pitch for the Beloit Snappers full-season Class A team.
“He was 0-11 or 1-11 at the time (finishing the season 3-13),” Pittaro recalled. “When I came back I said ‘If you didn’t know he was 1-11 you would never have guessed it.’ His body language was great, he made pitches, he located. It was one of those things he just ran into bad luck, a bad streak.
“But even with his record, he competed on the mound. You would have never known what his record was. It was just something, you know, when you go in and find out what these guys are made of, and that’s kind of 90 percent of the battle. He showed a lot.”
Mercer coach Kevin Kerins echoed Pittaro’s thoughts.
“His biggest attribute is he’s ultra-competitive and he’s tough as nails and pitches with a chip on his shoulder,” Kerins said. “You can’t always quantify that as far as scouts and Major League teams with their metrics. You can’t put a number on that. He has a lot of God-given ability but his make-up is what sets him apart to get to this point.”
Upon graduating from Florence in 2012, Fillmyer enrolled at Kean but transferred to MCCC before his first semester was over. At the time, he was a shortstop who pitched a little bit.
Heath played travel ball for Dave Gallagher and was coached by Nottingham coaches Jim Maher and Mike Petrowski and former Steinert coach Rich Giallella.
“He was probably a Division I shortstop, but I don’t think he had any pro potential there,” Maher said. “We started using him that fall as a closer. He was throwing 88, 90, people were going crazy.”
After landing at MCCC, Fillmyer excelled at shortstop and pitched just nine innings as a closer. But his arm was good enough for Colorado scout and New Jersey product Mike Garlatti to convince the Rockies to draft him as a pitcher. The two could not come to terms and Fillmyer stayed at Mercer.
Kerins and Maher agreed that Fillmyer’s future was on the mound. When he joined the Trenton Generals collegiate team that summer, Maher was no longer just advising him to pitch.
“I said ‘Look, you gotta concentrate more on pitching, that’s your future,’” Maher said. “For his pro development, we made him a starter. He had to throw his fastball and his change-up. He had some real good games and he struggled a little.”
That fall, Kerins had a similar conversation with Fillmyer.
“He was a helluva shortstop,” Kerins said. “We had to tell him his future was on the mound. We told him ‘You can’t play shortstop anymore, but you have a chance to make a lot of money and continue your career.’
“It wasn’t easy, he had to go through some growing pains. Just because you throw hard doesn’t mean you could pitch. He had a really good summer in sense of development with Jimmy with the Generals, then came back and had a really good fall where he focused on pitching with us and established some routines. He was ready to come back in the spring and have a dominant year.”
He became an All-American and the A’s took him in the First Year Player Draft. Pittaro felt the biggest upside was Fillmyer’s lack of innings-pitched through high school and college.
“We got a relatively fresh, young arm, and he was an athlete; that was the thing about him,” Pittaro said. “He could spin a breaking ball, there was velocity there, we thought there would be more as he built up arm strength. When we took him he probably had less than 70 innings on his arm. Athletic delivery, baseball aptitude and he spun a really good breaking ball. To his credit, he just improved every year; picked up a very good change.”
Fillmyer’s best season was last year when he went 11-5 with a 3.49 ERA for Double-A Midland. In the off-season, he was traded to the Royals with pitcher Jesse Hahn for outfielder Brandon Moss and pitcher Ryan Buchter.
Pittaro was unsure how close Fillmyer was to being called up to the A’s before being swapped, but thought the trade was good for him.
“You can never have too much pitching, you never know who’s a breath away, but I don’t get involved too much with who’s getting called up,” Pittaro said. “I know the Royals were really high on Heath, they had great interest in him.
“Heath was a sought after guy, which is a feather in his cap. It’s tough being traded. I was traded, it’s kind of a punch in the face a little bit. But you gotta realize an organization is not giving up on you, it’s that another organization wants you. It’s an opportunity, that’s all you can ask. He gets an opportunity to pitch in the big leagues. That’s a pretty remarkable thing. It’s nice to see, I’m really happy for him.”