The 2020 baseball season was unpredictable, unprecedented and, hopefully, never duplicated.
And Kyle Crick is leaving it in the past.
"Last year is last year,” Crick said in a Zoom call from Pirate City Friday. “I didn't have that many innings. It's tough to call six innings a body of work… There's really not too much I take from last year into this year, especially mentally."
It can’t be understated just how challenging a year 2020 was for Crick. His September surgery on his right index finger didn’t allow him to condition the way he wanted to in the offseason. Throwing schedules were interrupted by the pandemic and the shutdown. And in his personal life, he grieved the unexpected losses of his father and twin brother, both of whom passed within months of each other.
When he did get on the mound, he had, as he described, “diminished stuff,” and allowed six runs to score over 5 2/3 innings.
Rather than continue to pitch not at 100%, Crick was shutdown halfway through September last season. That gave him a chance to head home to Texas and get his offseason workouts started early.
“It was just nice to have a real body of work to build up for,” Crick said. “I didn't get that much last year with the hand issue, and it was good to be able to lift weight with both hands and be strong.”
Without a full offseason last year, and with the long layoff away from the team, Crick never found his velocity. After averaging 95.9 and 95.3 mph on his fastball his first two years with the Pirates, his heater dropped to 90.9 mph in 2020. A right shoulder/lat muscle strain sidelined him for most of the regular season, and when returned, he was still in the low 90s.
Crick did see it as a positive that he was still able to get batters out without his best stuff, but that is hardly the goal. His fastball velocity is going to be one of the most important things to watch with him this spring, but with camp just underway, he isn’t gun chasing yet.
“I would say, yes, I feel a lot better and I feel the ball coming out a lot better, but as far as getting into the velocities right now, I don't think we would do ourselves very good getting into those things right now,” Crick said. “In a month from now, we'll talk about it."
Getting that velocity back would go a long way for Crick having a rebound season. If he does bounce back to his 2018 form, there are late-inning bullpen jobs to be won, including at closer.
Unlike last year, where he announced Keone Kela was the closer early in spring training, Derek Shelton has not named a closer for the 2021 season. They may not have a true "closer," per se.
"We like thinking about it as leverage relievers to be able to use in leverage situations," pitching coach Oscar Marin said. "I think that’s what guys in competition need to get ready for."
Richard Rodriguez was one of those leverage relievers last year, sometimes appearing in the eighth inning, even late in the year. The Pirates want there to be a lot of competition in this camp, and those leverage spots, and maybe even a true "closer," are up for grabs.
“I'm embracing the competition,” Crick said. “We have a lot of good arms here. It should be a great competition. Richie was in the role at the end of last year, and rightfully so. He threw the most zeroes, he has the most experience in that role at that time. Really, right now, it's gonna be a healthy competition. It's about who throws the most zeros in a row, and that's how it should be, you know? Who's going to put up the most zeros in a row? That should be who's closing anyway."
More on the Pirates' third day of workouts:
• Rain in day one. Sunny for day two. Fifty-fifty this time.
Shelton also shared that position players have specific intake dates for them to arrive in Bradenton, Fla. There are some position players in camp, including Ke'Bryan Hayes.
The first full team workout is Feb. 22.
• The Pirates scouted winter ball this offseason diligently, giving them a gauge for pitchers like Edgar Santana, who didn't pitch last year after being busted for PEDs, and Luis Oviedo, a Rule 5 draft pick they traded for after they saw his fastball velocity was back following an injury-filled 2019 season.
After a year filled with sim games and bullpen, Shelton wanted to see them in a competitive environment.
"I mean, they’re playing in competition," Shelton said. "And it was competition that was missed last year because of the lack of development or minor league season... some of the guys that we had play, especially on the pitching side, we were able to gauge where their stuff was at, what was going on and have a little more framework on the body of work."
• One of the notable lifted health and safety protocols this season is the return of in-game video. There was always some speculation that was a knee jerk reaction by the league on the heels of the Astros scandal.
Shelton is excited to have the video back and thinks it will help hitters.
"I think the fact that they took it away was not right," Shelton said. "I think basically 28 teams got penalized for what happened in some other cases. So if it is back, if that is the case, I’ll be happy that it’s back."
• Todd Frazier is on his way to Pirate City on a minor league deal. I have more on that here.