In-depth: Taillon, Kuhl, Williams set to start under fresh spotlight with Cole gone

BRADENTON, Fla. — As Francisco Cervelli stood in front of his locker stall at Pirate City, the location of his 16th spring training as a professional ballplayer, he reflected on the starting pitcher he caught 12 times during the Pirates' 98-win season in 2015.

"Best arm I've seen in my life," Cervelli proclaimed. The 31-year-old catcher expressed sadness for Gerrit Cole being traded to the Astros, but the solemn expression on his face turned into a joyous smile as he began to describe the men tasked with replacing the Pirates' former ace.

First, Ivan Nova, a friend of Cervelli's for 15 years, will return as the elder statesman at 31 years old. Cervelli spoke of Nova's ascent from afterthought to potential No. 1 starter, specifically how Nova found success since arriving in Pittsburgh.

But Cervelli cut his superlatives for Nova short to begin describing his pride for the Pirates' three young starting pitchers — Jameson Taillon, Chad Kuhl and Trevor Williams — and he explained why he thinks they will help the club return to the postseason.

"People don’t pay attention to those guys," Cervelli told DKPittsburghSports.com on Tuesday, as pitchers and catchers reported for spring training. "They are different, but their brains are something special. They want more than everybody else. You see Taillon, what happened to him last year, this is a guy who is probably one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met. ... Kuhl, the way he learned, he learned so fast and was throwing hard, going after people. You have Williams, this guy has more — I don't even have to say it — than anyone.

"For me, I prefer to have a pitching staff like that than a lot of guys throwing 100 with nothing upstairs. These guys are special."

That sentiment is shared by the Pirates' ownership, front office, manager and coaching staff, and the club's offseason made it clear that the three young starters will serve as a pillar for a new era of the franchise.

STRATEGY 

When Taillon, Kuhl and Williams faltered last season, it was Clint Hurdle who came to their defense, emphasizing to reporters the importance of patience. Not even a disastrous start would change the organization’s plan to allow each man to experience growing pains in the major leagues. In reality, it was out of necessity.

Pitching was the foundation of the club's return to playoff contention. However, production has dipped since the Pirates' 98-win season. J.A. Happ departed in free agency. Francisco Liriano was among the worst starting pitchers in baseball in 2016 until he was dealt to the Blue Jays at the deadline.

The front office gambled on reclamation projects. Although pitching coach Ray Searage helped revive Nova's career, others such as Jon Niese and Ryan Vogelsong failed.

As the cost of free agents continued to rise, the Pirates chose to promote from within, rather than signing a proven arm, following a trend around Major League Baseball. Developing young, controllable pitchers such as Taillon, Kuhl and Williams is more important now than ever.

“Pitching is a game of attrition,” Neal Huntington said. “You can never have enough of it. As soon as you think you have too much starting pitching, the baseball gods are going to line up against you and things are going to go in a different direction. We do like our depth.”

Additionally, the Pirates have acquired young starting pitching via trade. Drew Hutchison, picked up from the Blue Jays for Liriano, started only one game for the Pirates before he declared for free agency this offseason. They're now hoping Joe Musgrove, one of four players acquired for Cole, can have success as a starter after faltering in that role in Houston last season.

When the Hutchison experiment was a failure in spring training last season, the Pirates handed a rotation spot to former top prospect Tyler Glasnow. It was one of many failures by the club in its second consecutive non-playoff season.

But the patience of Hurdle and Searage showed this club could possibly have three starting pitchers to build around for years to come.

"The buttons on my shirt are popping off,” Searage said last month. “I’m very proud of them, but there’s still more work to be done. The way they handled the situation and the adjustments that they made from the first start to their last start and the way they progressed in between — they started to find out about themselves — it was a joy to work with them and to watch them perform out there on a steady basis. I can’t wait to watch them continue to grow.”

BLUEPRINT 

Searage, 62, is viewed as one of the top pitching gurus in all of baseball. Entering his ninth season as the club’s pitching coach, he helped resurrect numerous careers while helping launch others, including Cole’s. As he did with Cole, Searage nurtured Taillon, Kuhl and Williams last season through the inevitable frustration that comes with failure.

“Especially with us being so young, Ray, I’m sure he got some extra gray hairs last year if he’s not all the way gray,” Taillon said. “The amount of mound visits he made to make sure the game wasn’t speeding up on us, the amount of time he was scouting and looking ahead to teams — it’s insane how much work that dude does. It’s crazy.”

And they each had different challenges.

Taillon, 26, was drafted second overall in 2010 but missed two full seasons because of injury, delaying his arrival in the major leagues. He then missed six weeks last season while being treated for testicular cancer.

Kuhl, 25, seemed destined for a spot in the bullpen because it didn’t appear he had the weapons to get hitters out a second or third time through the order. To succeed, he had to reinvent himself.

Williams was the odd man out of the rotation last spring, but was given a spot in the bullpen to serve an apprenticeship in the major leagues. It wasn’t until Taillon was placed on the disabled list because of the cancer diagnosis in May that Williams was moved into the Pirates’ rotation. He emerged as one of the top rookie starting pitchers in the National League.

"Tremendous, man," Nova said. "At that age, I would say, with that little experience, to do what they did last year, especially Williams to come on in the second half. He was the best pitcher in the second half, for me. Chad Kuhl stayed there the whole year.

"It’s unbelievable. You can see the hunger on their faces. They want to go out there and compete and prove some people wrong, you know?"

In addition to Searage’s teaching, Taillon, Kuhl and Williams often exchanged ideas in the clubhouse before and after games. Such dialogue was helpful when Kuhl and Williams each added a curveball to his repertoire in May. And there was Cole, only in his fourth season, serving as a mentor.

Also, the Pirates took several steps to assist Searage in overseeing the development of the three young starters. Justin Meccage, the club’s minor league pitching coordinator last season who Hurdle described as “cutting-edge,” made trips to Pittsburgh to exchange ideas on how to best help the staff. Bryan Mitchell, the Pirates' senior pitching coordinator, analyzed old game footage from a pitcher’s minor league starts and relayed any research or observations to Searage.

Despite producing uneven results, the three made a combined 81 starts for a rotation ranked seventh in the National League in ERA. But their growing pains often led to shorter starts, which taxed the club’s bullpen.

It created a challenge short-term for Hurdle, forcing the Pirates to shuttle relievers back and forth between Pittsburgh and Triple-A Indianapolis. However, Hurdle made it clear he was thinking long-term with the development of each pitcher.

“If you’re going to invest, you need to invest,” Hurdle. “Every time you invest doesn’t mean you’re always going to get a good result. Some of these things have been some challenges along the way, but they’re learning experiences. … They’re getting that experience, they’re getting to face good hitters later in games to work out of jams to pitch innings.”

ANOTHER COMEBACK 

Taillon’s story is unlike any in Major League Baseball. He reached Triple-A in his third professional season, but he missed the 2014 season after Tommy John surgery and 2015 after hernia surgery.

The former top prospect returned to the mound in 2016 and finally reached the major leagues, recording a 1.11 WHIP in 18 starts with the Pirates after he was recalled in June. But he also missed time because he was struck in the head by a 105 mph comebacker.

Taillon then made the club’s opening day roster last season and was outstanding through his first five starts, pitching seven scoreless innings against both the Red Sox and Cubs.

“His maturity, his mentality, his approach, his intelligence, his drive, are among some of the better I’ve been around in my fortunate time in the game,” Huntington said. “Part of being (an ace) is being able to do that. How does it translate on the mound every time he takes the ball? He’s shown at times he can do that. The great ones are good for a long time. The elite ones are great for a long time. It’s awfully early to start talking about any of our guys in that category. They need to go out and do it on a consistent basis, but Jameson has those traits that you believe we could look up in a handful of years and he could put together some really good seasons.”

On May 8, Taillon underwent surgery to remove his left testicle and the biopsy revealed he had testicular cancer. During his rehabilitation, Taillon was always gracious with reporters, answering every question about his timeline to return and the results of his latest blood work. But he was tired of being viewed as the cancer patient. Taillon, a cerebral player who pays particular attention to analytics, wanted to go back to talking about baseball.

Five weeks after surgery, Taillon was back on the mound at PNC Park. What unfolded over the next four months was a glimpse of why the Pirates chose him over talented players such as Manny Machado and why they refused to include him in a trade for David Price years earlier.

“The fact of the matter is, it’s got nothing to do with him pitching,” Hurdle said. “This man had every opportunity to go home. This man had every opportunity to feel sorry for himself. Nobody would’ve said a word. ‘No, I get it. Go home. Relax. Get ready for next season.’ Not only did he not do that, he said, ‘I’m going to get better. I’m going to pitch this year for this team, because I want to be on this team.’"

It wasn't all great. Taillon had a 5.96 ERA in 14 starts following the All-Star break. However, he finished his first full major league season with a confidence that he had discovered what ailed him on the mound.

With the help of Searage, Taillon decided to switch back to a four-seam changeup grip after using a two-seam grip for much of the season. The adjustment helped him allow four earned runs over his final 17 innings of the season. In turn, it made his curveball more unpredictable. Additionally, his four-seam fastball command improved.

Taillon had a 4.44 ERA in 25 starts, but his 3.48 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching, which accounts for just home runs, strikeouts and walks) indicates he’s capable of much more.

“I’m really excited,” Taillon said. “I think, putting the cancer thing aside, the lessons I learned from my first full year in the big leagues were vast. I think towards the end I saw … I had a couple rough patches there and at the end, I was throwing the ball the way I wanted to and trending upwards, so I feel like now I understand what I do when I pitch well that makes me successful. What I do when I’m not pitching well. How I get back to that quicker. I’m excited to pitch and use all I’ve learned.

“I’m ready to get started. I’ve been ready since the season ended.”

EXPERIMENT

Unlike Taillon, Kuhl was never viewed as a can’t-miss prospect. He was a ninth-round pick in 2013 after he wasn’t even a first-team all-conference selection at the University of Delaware. The 25-year-old right-hander did not reach Triple-A until 2016, but his 2.37 ERA through 16 starts earned him a call-up to the major leagues that June.

He recorded a 1.31 WHIP in 14 major league starts that season, but he struggled against left-handed batters and his control was shaky.

When Kuhl made the opening day roster in 2017, he thought of a new way to attack hitters. Rather than relying on his two-seam fastball and slider, Kuhl wanted to throw more four-seam fastballs. That quickly led to an uptick in velocity. Something was still missing, though.

Searage wanted to find an additional pitch to help complement Kuhl’s arsenal, so he urged the right-hander to give a curveball a try during a bullpen session in May. Kuhl had thrown the pitch throughout college, but the Pirates’ staff told him to drop the pitch after he was drafted.

“I think adding the curveball, being able to throw it [made the difference],” Kuhl said. “It’s stuff that I had, but it’s stuff I didn’t showcase or start with. I’ve thrown a curveball my entire life. Being able to pitch at the top of the zone is something that’s not really preached in the minor leagues. You really want to be a ground-ball guy and force action down. It’s something you don’t train yourself to do as much as you would throwing down. I feel like it was always there. It’s something you can add and feel a lot better about it.”

Kuhl started using the pitch in a game on May 31, when he threw 14 in a loss to the Diamondbacks. Prior to that start, he had a 6.29 ERA and pitched through the sixth inning only twice in 10 starts.

He had a 3.58 ERA with 106 strikeouts and 55 walks in his final 21 starts.

“It just kind of came out of nowhere,” Kuhl said. “From that point on, I felt I was starting to hit stride there. Even into September, where I was having a lot better feel with that curveball and being able to throw it in any count, throwing it for strikeouts and stuff like that. I felt really good how I finished up, finished strong. That’s what you want to do.”

In 31 starts, including a career-high 157 1/3 innings, Kuhl was 8-11 with a 4.35 ERA and 1.47 WHIP, recording a 1.9 fWAR. Like Taillon, Kuhl spent his offseason focusing on how to best prepare himself for another full season, but he’s done so knowing he has more than two pitches at his disposal.

"Now a plan is in place," Kuhl said.

FORGOTTEN MAN 

In October 2015, three weeks after a Wild Card loss to the Cubs ended the franchise's memorable 98-win season, the Pirates lost pitching guru Jim Benedict to the Marlins. Benedict was instrumental in the development of pitching prospects, including Cole, and he worked closely with Searage. He also helped with advance scouting.

One day after Benedict's departure, the Pirates acquired Williams, a former second-round draft pick, from the Marlins in exchange for minor-league right-handed starting pitcher Scott Mitchell. It is perhaps one of the most significant trades the club has executed in more than two years.

Williams, now 25, quickly rose up the Pirates' organizational depth chart, recording a 2.53 ERA and 1.20 WHIP in 19 starts for Triple-A Indianapolis in 2016.

He made his major league debut that September, but he allowed 11 earned runs in 12 2/3 innings. Competing for a spot in the rotation during spring training last season, Williams' 2.04 ERA in three starts was far better than Glasnow's mark of 6.23; however, Glasnow was awarded a place in the rotation.

Williams performed well enough, though, to be given a spot in the bullpen. The idea was to allow him to serve an apprenticeship in the major leagues, where he could learn from Searage and prepare himself in the event a spot start was needed.

"Some guys flourish in the bullpen and some guys don’t," Williams, who allowed seven earned runs in 11 2/3 relief innings, explained. "You kind of fall into your role, especially as a young guy. You don’t know how many opportunities you’re going to get so you have to take advantage of the ones you’re given."

His call back to the rotation came when his close friend, Taillon, was placed on the disabled list. Williams had a 5.05 ERA in his first eight starts, but then had a 3.97 ERA in his final 17 starts of the season.

So, what made the difference? Like Kuhl, Williams began throwing a curveball in May, but it was command of his four-seam fastball and sinker that helped him rank second among NL rookies with at least 15 starts.

According to FanGraphs, Williams' runs allowed per fastball thrown was the best among NL pitchers with at least 50 innings. His command of both pitches allowed him to get ahead of counts and helped him average seven strikeouts per nine innings, despite being viewed as a ground-ball pitcher during his trek through the minor leagues.

In turn, his breaking pitches — slider, curveball and changeup — became more effective.

"When you think about it, fastballs are hard to hit," Williams said. "A well-placed fastball beats a good hitter nine out of 10 times. If you really get that going, and you get your fastball established, then everything in the game opens up to you. It helps me challenge hitters more. It helps me attack the zone. It’s hard to attack the zone with just sliders. If you have a bad slider day and you’re not getting it over for strikes then you’re just going to get hit around the yard."

Searage added: "He was able to move the fastball to the four quadrants of the strike zone as he progressed. As he got going, he started feeling more confident. His slider started to get more consistent with the break. They all go through the stage where when they’re in trouble, they want to come out fighting and they want to enhance pitches, as opposed to the execution of the pitch. There really isn’t a bad pitch unless you don’t execute. He got that. Kuhl was getting it at the end, too. Jamo knows what he has to do. … They all go through those different things."

The strategy sounds simple, yet it's one that Cole struggled with the past two seasons. According to PITCHfx, the movement on Williams' slider increased throughout the year. It led to a breakthrough during the final five weeks of the season, as opponents batted just .222 against him over his final four starts.

Like Taillon, Williams had to focus his offseason on physically preparing for a full season in the rotation and, although he gained confidence last season, he is aware of how fleeting success can be.

"Going from start to start you're always taking stuff and it will be this way for the rest of my career, because once you think you’ve figured it out, you just get crushed," Williams said. "You learn what works, you learn what doesn’t work and go from there. We’ll come in this year and teams have had a year to look at me, and they’ve been preparing for me for next year. I have to do the same thing. I have to keep adapting, keep getting better."

'IT'S AMAZING'

At his best, Cole appeared to have the potential to be the most dominant pitcher in baseball. He was a foundational piece for the franchise during three playoff seasons, but he never quite fulfilled the expectations attached to being drafted first overall.

Despite having numbers that suggest better baseball is ahead, the Pirates traded him to the Astros last month for four players, none of whom are ranked among Baseball America's Top 100 prospects.

His departure leaves the rotation as one of the bigger questions marks entering Hurdle's eighth season as manager, but the belief within the organization is that the growth of Taillon, Kuhl and Williams — including a combined 2.96 ERA in 73 innings over the final five weeks last season — can bring playoff baseball back to Pittsburgh.

"It’s unbelievable," Meccage, named the Pirates' assistant pitching coach this offseason, said of the three starters. "You knew at some point it’s going to start to click. You knew during the season they’d recover and be resilient. You knew it’d turn for them when they were getting beat up a bit. I can’t imagine what’s going to happen in the next couple of years for those guys. It’s amazing."