When Francisco Cervelli could barely breathe in his new catcher's mask, he asked his backup for help. Cervelli, who switched to a hockey-style mask shortly before going on the disabled list for the Pirates last month, tried on Elias Diaz's mask to see if it made a difference.
It was lighter, but Cervelli is resistant to the change. He has trouble seeing at times, and it still feels heavy compared to his old cage. However, it's one way the 32-year-old catcher is trying to better protect himself from foul balls and, in turn, prolonging his career in the major leagues.
"I got hit three times in a week," Cervelli told DKPittsburghSports.com. "Each was in a weird spot; two in my jaw. I had to try something new. You never know if it will work. This is better."
Cervelli was struck on the left side of his jaw by a foul ball at Wrigley Field June 10, and he was out of the lineup for the next three days. Meanwhile, he met with Scott Bonnett, the Pirates' equipment manager, to go over his options. Cervelli thought another mask could better protect him from foul balls.
After all, this was the second consecutive year he suffered a concussion on a foul tip. Cervelli was struck by a foul ball last June 6 in Baltimore and placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list the next day. He returned a week later, only to be placed on the disabled list again with concussion-like symptoms.
So, Cervelli sat down with Bonnett and decided to order a hockey-style mask from Rawlings. It arrived before a Thursday night game against the Diamondbacks June 21; however, the experiment didn't go well at first. "It was way too heavy," Cervelli told me. "I couldn't even breathe in it. I wanted to switch in middle of the game."
Diaz said: "I tried it on and it was so much heavier than the one I use. You need to be comfortable back there. That one was too much, so I told him to try one of mine."
Cervelli, though, was placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list the following day after experiencing symptoms he compared to being "drunk." Diaz began using a hockey-style mask five years ago when former Pirates prospect Carlos Paulino allowed him to try one on. He didn't make the change for more protection, though. The helmet had other benefits, as he explained to Cervelli the past few weeks.
"The old masks can fly off when you try to throw to second base," Diaz said. "This one barely moves, plus better protection. It's not just foul balls. The bat can come around and hit you in the back of the head."
Cervelli began using one of Diaz's black All-Star masks upon returning to the lineup last Friday, and the lighter cage hasn't negatively impacted his vision. It's also providing the protection Cervelli desired.
"All the young guys coming up are using them," Bonnett said. "We have to get him comfortable, how he feels with it and that one feels a lot better. We’ll go with that until we have to make another change."
MORE PIRATES
• Felipe Vazquez hasn't been playing music in the clubhouse lately. He's now rarely at his locker before games. He'd often be taking a nap on the couch last season. Sure, he's still joking around at times, but it seems like he's hardened a bit over the past month. "That's maturity," Ray Searage told me with a smile. -- Lysowski
• A source told me there's no indication the Pirates are actively shopping Cervelli yet, although that is expected to occur soon. That could explain Cervelli suddenly taking grounders over at first base. -- Lysowski
• Jung Ho Kang's No. 17 jersey was given to outfielder Jason Martin last week at Triple-A Indianapolis because it was one of few Size 44 jerseys available for Martin to take. Seriously. Kang is still on the disabled list with a wrist sprain. -- Lysowski
• From a longtime National League baseball man to my inbox this week, regarding Neal Huntington's statement that the front office felt this team could win 78-82 games: "Those projections, who were they done by? The Tooth Fairy?" -- Dejan Kovacevic
PENGUINS
• With Patrick Maroon signing with his hometown St. Louis Blues Wednesday, all the big-name free agent left wings are off the board. However, there are two prominent left wings, both unrestricted free agents at the end of next season, who are believed to be on the trading block. Montreal’s Max Pacioretty has reportedly been told he won’t be receiving a contract extension, while Jeff Skinner would seem likely to be moved as Carolina endures wholesale changes. On some level, both make perfect sense for the Penguins. The Canadiens desperately need centers and the Penguins have five of those. Skinner was drafted by Jim Rutherford with the Hurricanes in 2010. Both those players come with big-ticket contracts. Pacioretty is due $4.5 million while Skinner’s contract has a cap hit of $5.725 million. After Thursday’s signing of Jamie Oleksiak, the Penguins now have a league-low $745,000 remaining against the $79.5 million cap. So, yeah, that’s not going to happen without shedding salary or some really creative math. -- Chris Bradford
• In talking to Rutherford Thursday night, don’t expect the Penguins to do too much between now and the season. “No, I don’t feel we have to,” he said. “We’re getting into the middle of July. Sometimes somebody slips through the cracks on July 1 and there’s good deals for teams out there. So we’ll keep an eye on that. We always keep an eye on the trade front and we’ll go from there. But I certainly don’t feel at this point that we need to do anything. We can bring the players that we have to camp and see what we’ve got.” -- Bradford
• The Penguins don’t have just the top six defensemen under contract for next season, they have the top eight, reminded Rutherford. Obviously, that includes the “steady” Chad Ruhwedel but also Juuso Riikola. The organization is very high on the Finnish defenseman after he turned heads at the IIHF World Championship. “We like what we see there,” the GM said. -- Bradford
• After a year's hiatus, the NHL will reintroduce third jerseys for this coming season. They were discontinued in 2017-18 after Adidas took over from Reebok as the league's jersey supplier. Bill Daly, the league's deputy commissioner, said that between 24-26 of the NHL's 30 teams will don alternate sweaters and the Penguins are believed to be one of those teams. None of the jerseys have been revealed but as a fan (OK, nerd) of hockey jerseys, the Penguins would do best by sporting the gold jersey that they wore from 1981-82 through the 1984-85 season. Throw in some gold Cooper SK2000 helmets and that's a look. -- Bradford
• There were a dozen players from the U.S. National Team Development Program selected in last month's draft, including three in the first round. Though none were picks of the Penguins, the USNTDP was represented by Jack DeBoer at the team's development camp at the Lemieux Sports Complex. Based in Plymouth, Mich., the USNTDP ices two teams -- U17 and U18 -- in the USHL, playing against older competition and even exhibitions against NCAA D-I programs. The NTDP can count NHL top-three picks Auston Mathews, Patrick Kane, Erik Johnson, Rick DiPietro, Jack Eichel, James van Riemsdyk and new Penguin Jack Johnson among its many alums. That doesn't even include Jack Hughes, the presumptive first overall pick next year. DeBoer, the son of Sharks coach Peter DeBoer, is committed to Boston University in the fall of 2019 but says the powerhouse junior program's success lies in the attention to details. "They do all the little things right," DeBoer, who had 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) in 61 games last season, was telling me. "We're on the ice every day for an hour and a half, just the culture there. Every kid who grows up playing hockey in the U.S. wants to play there and when you get there, it’s just really good to compete with the top 20 guys in the country." -- Bradford
• Minus the menacing goatee, Philippe Lapointe looks a lot like his father and people have pointed out that he even skates like him. But Philippe Lapointe says he's not a Martin Lapointe clone. "I''m not as tough as him," Philippe was saying at Penguins development camp. "He was an aggressive guy. I like to play in the corners a lot like him and be tough in the corner, but I'm not fighting any time soon." The younger Lapointe, also a right wing, will return next season to Lincoln in the USHL and is committed to the University of Michigan in the fall of 2019. He had 26 points (seven goals, 19 assists) in 59 games last season for Lincoln. Martin Lapointe, who racked up 1,417 PIMs in 991 NHL games, has given his son "all the advice in the world" but the son says his best is this: "I can only get you get so far. You're at an age where you're going to have to make it on your own." As much as his father, he's also following in the footsteps of Sidney Crosby, Jack Johnson, Zach Parise, Jonathan Toews, Nathan MacKinnon and countless others. Like the aforementioned, Lapointe spent a year at Shattuck-St. Mary's in Fairbault, Minn., in 2016-17. "Just all the history behind it," Lapointe was saying. "Going to school and being able to play every day and practice every day, I felt it really helped my development having all those resources there, all the coaches and the trainers." -- Bradford
STEELERS
• The Steelers have remained in contact with Eli Rogers and could make a move to re-sign the receiver prior to the start of training camp July 25. Rogers suffered a torn ACL late in the Steelers' 45-42 loss to Jacksonville in mid-January and is now nearly seven months removed from surgery to repair the injury. He would have to pass a physical before any contract is signed. The key also will be if he's willing to sign a one-year deal to prove he's healthy. -- Dale Lolley
• The Steelers currently have $5.95 million in salary cap space available. The team generally likes to have around $3 million in cap space heading into the regular season just in case it needs to make some moves. Some of that will be eaten up by rookie Terrell Edmunds' deal, when that finally gets done. Rashaad Penny, a running back selected by Seattle one pick in front of Edmunds, got a deal worth $10.8 million that included a $5.9-million signing bonus. Lamar Jackson, selected four picks after Edmunds, got $9.47 million from Baltimore, with a bonus of $4.97 million. Edmunds' base salary will be $490,000, the rookie minimum, so the signing bonus will be the key. If he gets a bonus of, say, $5.5 million, that would mean he would count $1.865 million against the team's salary cap this season. -- Lolley
• The Steelers will announce their second Hall of Honor class at 1 p.m. July 28. It's going to be an interesting class, to be sure. Last year's class included all of the Pro Football Hall of Fame members who have been associated with the team plus Dick Hoak, Andy Russell, Donnie Shell and L.C. Greenwood. I'll be shocked if this year's class doesn't include scout Bill Nunn. One of my favorite things to do each year is to take a moment to sit in the bench that overlooks the field at Chuck Noll Stadium that is dedicated to Nunn, who died in 2014. -- Lolley
