BRADENTON, Fla. — As Michael Feliz was coming to terms with being traded to the Pirates, his cellphone started to ring. Francisco Liriano, a teammate of Feliz's with the Astros during the second half of last season, was calling to congratulate Feliz.
Liriano, the crafty left-handed starting pitcher who was a central figure in the Pirates' return to prominence from 2013-15, told Feliz he was joining "the best organization he's ever been in," as Feliz recalled at Pirate City last week, and that the coaching staff would help him fix all that went wrong last season.
Feliz, a 24-year-old, hard-throwing right-handed reliever acquired in the Gerrit Cole trade, was overcome with excitement. After all, inflammation in his right shoulder rendered him ineffective during the second half of last season and prevented him from pitching during the World Series champion Astros' postseason run.
If his first spring outing with the Pirates was any indication, he's a favorite to earn a spot in the their crowded bullpen — the club's 10 pitchers combined to allow 11 hits in a 8-8 tie with the Tigers Sunday in Lakeland, Fla. — and his role could be a prominent one.
"Last season was difficult," Feliz told DKPittsburghSports.com at Pirate City last week. "You feel like you can't throw hard. You know you can compete, and I showed in '16 what I can do when I'm healthy. I'm ready to do that here now."
Feliz showed with the Astros in 2016 that he can be an electrifying late-inning reliever. He had a 4.43 ERA with a 1.18 WHIP and a 8-1 record in 65 innings, most of which were in the seventh or eighth inning, by throwing a four-seam fastball that reached 98 mph to complement a sweeping slider and fall-off-the-table changeup.
He averaged 13.2 strikeouts per nine innings with an xFiP of 2.67. Opponents batted .257 against his four-seam fastball and .167 against his slider. It was his first full season as a reliever after he failed to earn a rotation spot out of spring training.
That success carried over to the first two months of 2017, too. During his first 23 appearances of the season, Feliz had a 2.10 ERA while allowing a .633 OPS with 35 strikeouts and only nine walks. However, in his final 22 1/3 innings, Feliz recorded a 9.67 ERA with a 1.056 OPS against, 35 strikeouts and 13 walks. Additionally, 80 percent of his inherited runners scored.
Feliz began experiencing shoulder discomfort two weeks after the All-Star break, and the subsequent inflammation persisted throughout the second half. In a creative move to give the Astros a fresh reliever, Feliz was sent to Double-A Corpus Christi for three days in July. It also give him some much-needed rest, but he was placed on the disabled list only one day later.
Feliz was activated from the disabled list in early September, but the problem persisted. In addition to elevating his pitches, Feliz's fastball velocity dipped to an average of 94 mph in September and his slider had less movement.
"He was a big go-to guy for us for the better part of the year and in 2016," Joe Musgrove, who was also acquired by the Pirates in the Cole trade, said. "He’s got plenty of experience being in high-leverage situations, knows how to get big league hitters out. He’s a really powerful pitcher. Really good stuff. Big fastball. Power slider. I saw him being a big piece for the bullpen in the postseason if he hadn’t been hurting."
From the first out in Game 1 to the World Series-clinching groundout in Game 7, all Feliz could do was watch from the Astros' dugout. Experiencing the jubilation after the final out made him yearn to help the Astros repeat in 2018.
So, after resting his shoulder this offseason, Feliz took a closer look at his arsenal. When Feliz was at his best, he used a three-pitch mix of four-seam fastballs, sliders and changeups. He rarely threw the changeup during the second half of last season, though, which made him far more predictable to opposing hitters.
The changeup — which many pitchers say is the most difficult pitch to implement because it’s all about feel — was a project of Feliz’s following 2016. He decided to not use the pitch much in 2017, though, because he wasn't entirely confident with throwing it.
The plan backfired.
"I wasn’t throwing the changeup much," Feliz recalled. "You only have one inning, so you want to just get three outs quick. I was throwing my fastball and slider more, but I need to throw the changeup more. The mentality now is to throw that. No more than my slider, but more of the changeup."
Last offseason, the Pirates signed right-handed reliever Daniel Hudson to a two-year, $11 million contract with a plan that Hudson would be the club's setup man. However, Hudson struggled and lost that job in June. The Pirates traded him to the Rays earlier this week in the deal that landed them Corey Dickerson.
Despite losing Juan Nicasio and Tony Watson last season, Neal Huntington told reporters in a conference call afterwards that Hudson was included in the Dickerson trade because the Pirates were deep in the bullpen.
With Felipe Rivero to close and George Kontos to control the eighth inning, Feliz is competing against Kyle Crick, Tyler Glasnow, Steven Brault, A.J. Schugel, Edgar Santana, Dovydas Neverauskas, Josh Smoker and Kevin Siegrist, among others, for a spot in the bullpen.
Although Kontos' role is set, Feliz could be the long-term solution to set up Rivero. He illustrated that Saturday when he struck out the side — including top prospects Miguel Andujar and Clint Frazier — in the fifth inning of a 4-1 loss to the Yankees at LECOM Park, attacking the zone with his four-seam fastball and mixing in his two breaking pitches.
And he's carrying with him the motivation to show that his future more closely resembles what he accomplished in 2016 than his forgettable four months last season.
"After watching the World Series, I want to do that again but I don't want to be stuck sitting in the dugout," Feliz said. "You want to win it all. It's the best thing in baseball."
GAME NOTES
• Tyler Glasnow, making his first start of the spring, pitched a scoreless first inning — including a strikeout of Miguel Cabrera — before allowing two runs in the second. The 6-foot-8 right-hander, who expressed a willingness to pitch out of the bullpen this season, allowed a leadoff home run to Nicholas Castellanos before Jeimer Candelario doubled and Glasnow hit Mikie Mahtook. Glasnow also threw a wild pitch.
Candelario scored on a fielder's choice by Derek Norris, and Glasnow struck out Dawel Lugo to end the inning.
• Austin Meadows, who went 3-for-3 in the Pirates' spring opener Friday, hit a bases-clearing triple with the bases loaded in the eighth inning to cut the deficit to one run. Outfielder Jerrick Suiter, who split last season between High-A Bradenton and Double-A Altoona, drove in the tying run in the ninth.
• Smoker, Schugel, Tyler Jones, Santana, Casey Sadler, John Stilson, Damien Magnifico, Yeudy Garcia and Tate Scioneaux also pitched for the Pirates.
• Stilson, a minor-league free agent, allowed five runs on four hits in the seventh. Schugel, a 28-year-old right-hander out of minor-league options, left the game in the fourth inning because of right shoulder discomfort. He allowed one hit and walked a batter before exiting.
• Alfredo Reyes, a 24-year-old shortstop, hit an inside-the-park home run in the top of the seventh to give the Pirates a two-run lead. Reyes batted .232/..272/.312 in 109 games at High-A Bradenton last season.
• Second baseman Kevin Kramer, a second-round draft pick in 2015, gave the Pirates a 3-0 lead in the top of the second when he hit a three-run homer off Tigers starter Artie Lewicky. Kramer, 24, was limited to just 53 games at Double-A Altoona last season because of a broken hand.
• Kramer was one of only two Pirates starters to record a hit. Max Moroff went 2 for 2 with a run, but the other seven starters went a combined 0 for 18. This was Clint Hurdle's starting lineup:
1. Adam Frazier, CF
2. Todd Cunningham, LF
3. Colin Moran, 3B
4. Josh Bell, DH
5. Bryce Brentz, RF
6. Jose Osuna, 1B
7. Max Moroff, SS
8. Kevin Kramer, 2B
9. Jacob Stallings, C
• The Pirates will host the Red Sox at Lecom Park on Monday at 1:05 p.m. Ivan Nova is expected to start with Jameson Taillon, Dario Agrazal, Luis Escobar, Kontos and Rivero also expected to pitch.