'I want to be there so bad:' Visa issues keeping Peguero from spring training taken in Bradenton, Fla. (Pirates)

PIRATES

Liover Peguero in the development camp last October.

BRADENTON, Fla. -- One of the main storylines this spring training for the Pirates is the competition for the starting shortstop job, but the player who could be their shortstop of the future has not been able to enter the country.

The Pirates included Liover Peguero among their non-roster camp invitees this spring, but the shortstop has had visa issues and is still in the Dominican Republic. He's not used to being away from an infield for this long, and staying at home while baseball is underway is getting to him. 

“You don’t even know how hard it is for me. I want to be there so bad,” Peguero told me over the phone with a slight chuckle in his voice. “... I know I’m going to be there soon, but I should be there [now].”

Peguero is awaiting test results that could grant him entry back into the country and is hopeful that he will be in camp by this weekend, though there is no guarantee. The Pirates’ first full team workout was on Feb. 22, and the first spring training game was Feb. 28.

Minor-league spring training will start once the Pirates head north for the season, and Peguero will take part in that camp as well. However, the Pirates decided to include some of their young prospects as non-roster invitees in their major league camp this year so they can get a taste of the routine and start to build relationships with coaches.

“It’s kind of putting them into our culture because of the fact that we didn’t have minor-league baseball last year and we just had the alternative site," Derek Shelton said as camp opened last month. "Some of these guys haven’t had the opportunity to be around us, to be around me, to be around our coaching staff. It’s just to kind of integrate them into that."

The 20-year-old shortstop came over from the Diamondbacks as part of the Starling Marte trade last January, and while the Pirates assumed a lot of risk taking on a player that young, it looks like that bet could pay off. MLB Pipeline named him in their look at 10 prospects who just missed their top 100 list, signaling he is on a trajectory to be added to that prestigious group midseason. FanGraphs thinks similarly, ranking him as the 112th best prospect in the game.

Part of that jump up the prospect boards is the Pirates made sure Peguero was one of a handful of young minor-league players who got as much in-person coaching as possible last year. That included having him take part in the Instructional League at Pirate City in October and at the Pirates’ alternate training site in Altoona, Pa. during the regular season.

Peguero wasn’t included on a taxi squad during the season, but he was able to spend the year with some of the Pirates’ best minor-league coaches and got to work with his potential future double-play partner, Nick Gonzales.

“These are not normal times, and we’ve chosen to take advantage of some extra time with those guys,” Ben Cherington told me shortly before camp started.

Taking part in his first major league spring training was supposed to be a similar opportunity. There’s still plenty of time for him to join and take part, but with games underway, it won’t be the same experience as if he would have been around for the first team workouts.

When he does get to camp, he’s going to show off a new swing that he worked on this offseason. In the past, his hands were set at about chest level. This winter, he moved them up to a little higher than his shoulders and liked the results.

“I honestly have a little more power with my hands a little bit higher,” Peguero said. “I’ve been trying to control that, getting [the bat] 100% into it. Everything is a process, but I’m trying to get there, like really there, and get more comfortable with it.”

Peguero wanted to experiment with his hand positioning after spending time in Altoona last year and seeing more high fastballs than ever. It was tough for him to catch up with upper-90s heat there, so he wanted to adjust his swing path so he can control the zone better.

“I feel like now it’s going to be easier for me to handle those types of pitches.,” Peguero said.

He also adopted some new hip stretches and exercises this winter and started to incorporate more jumping drills into his warmups. His focus was to pick up some more speed now that his 6’1” frame has filled out, and he feels he’ll see the benefits in the field, too.

Despite not being able to play in a game last year, Peguero is expected to continue to rise quickly through the Pirates’ farm system. Most analysts project he will be ready for the majors by 2022. That makes this a pivotal year in his development as a player, and he has prepared with that in mind.

 “I’m just trying to be really, really healthy, just so I can have a better year,” Peguero said. “My goal is to get better.”

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