Pitching coach Oscar Marin came to the Pirates this offseason inheriting a staff that finished at or near the bottom of every major category in 2019.
The job only became more difficult from there.
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shutdown greatly altered the organization’s plans for the season, but since resuming, the greatest problem has been injuries. The Pirates knew they would be without Jameson Taillon and Chris Archer since both were recovering from surgeries, but they also quickly lost Joe Musgrove and Mitch Keller to injuries as well, leaving them without their opening day starter and top prospect.
Keone Kela, Nick Burdi and Kyle Crick, the presumed back three of the bullpen, have all missed significant time and have combined for just 7 1/3 innings pitched. The middle relief has also taken hits, with Michael Feliz and Clay Holmes being out for the year.
A lot of that can be attributed to the demands of this season and the short camp, where pitcher injuries have been up all across the league.
“Obviously we don’t want to lose those types of guys, especially early in the season,” Marin said before Saturday’s game against the Reds. “But it just gave opportunity to a whole other group of guys to kind of step up, to kind of get their feet underneath them in a season like this. For the most part, with those guys, they have been stepping up to the challenge.”
Despite the adversities, the Pirates’ overall pitching results have improved in 2020. Their staff ERA has dropped from 5.19 to 4.88. Going by ERA+, which takes a team’s home ball park and the rest of the league’s output into consideration and grades it on a scale where 100 is average, they went from a league worst 84 in 2019 to an almost average 95 this year.
Marin has seen improvements both from the rotation and the bullpen.
“Here lately with our starting pitching, just being able to attack the zone a little bit more in-zone as opposed to trying to get chases,” Marin said. “I think that’s been a lot better the last couple of games. With our bullpen, them kind of getting into leverage roles and for the first time guys being in those situations and how some of them have grown. Maybe not the best situations, earlier, in some games. But when they go back into those situations, their tempo, their mentality, the way they’re thinking of attacking hitters, they’re learning from their past experiences.”
That improvement has come while relying heavily on pitchers in new roles. In Friday’s game two win, Derek Shelton turned to Sam Howard, Chris Stratton and Nik Turley to bridge the gap to the final inning before giving the ball to Richard Rodriguez. All four had not been used in those roles until this season, but they combined to give the three scoreless innings the team needed to win.
Starting that game and Thursday’s victory before it were two rookies, JT Brubaker and Cody Ponce. That Thursday victory was aided by a fireman relief appearance from Geoff Hartlieb, who has excelled in that role this season.
That has come with growing pains, especially in handing out walks. The Pirates' 158 walks allowed are the third most in baseball.
"With some of our relievers not being in those situations before, maybe that leverage situation would come on to get swing and misses, chases in those situations or even some of our starters from there," Marin said. "But I think how we’re going to attack and how we’ve been lately in attacking that is just trying to get our outs in zone because our stuff plays. Our guys have good stuff. If we fall behind in counts, numbers tell us that even if you have really good stuff that becomes average. Our whole focus is winning the 0-0, the 1-1 and retiring the first hitter we see.”
The coaching staff and Shelton have said repeatedly they are looking for ways to get better. Having young players step up while pitching in new situations a sign of that happening.
“When you have a couple guys from last year [who were] maybe on some other teams that weren’t in leverage situations, maybe were in mop-up situations, and now this year they get the opportunity to get in those leverage situations, winning, tight ballgames, within one run, the teaching points do come,” Marin said. “I think because of those teaching points, these guys are getting better each time out.”
So when next season rolls along and some of those other pitchers get healthy…
“It's gonna make it fun as get into spring training 2021,” Shelton said. “Because we're gonna have a lot of guys that should have the ability to get high leverage outs."
Learning about the pitching staff is a two way street, too. Marin got to know his staff during spring training, the shutdown and summer camp, but the Pirates have relied on pitchers who might not have been there the entire time. Hartlieb was optioned to the Altoona camp during spring training 2.0. Howard and Ponce started there.
Shelton has complimented Marin for making the most out of his in-game mound visits. That comes from getting to know these pitchers more, and could be a sign of better things to come.
“It’s just knowing every individual pitcher and kind of seeing what you need to do with each guy,” Marin said. “Obviously we talk about getting to know each one of your guys and what gets them to take the next leap, who needs the push, who needs the deep breath… Overall, as we keep learning our guys, that’s been a lot better to understand.”