BRADENTON, Fla. -- The Pirates made it two in a row Sunday, clobbering the Orioles, 13-1, at LECOM Park.
This story begins before then, though. Back on Jan. 24.
Miguel Yajure didn’t recognize the number, so he let it go to voicemail.
A minute later, his phone started to blow up with text messages. Some to wish him good luck, others to welcome him to the Pirates.
It turned out the call he ignored was from the Yankees general manager, Brian Cashman, who wanted to be the one to tell him he was going to Pittsburgh.
“The first thing I thought was, ‘What am I going to do with all my clothes from the Yankees?’ ” Yajure joked.
Yajure was one of 11 players the Pirates got back in their three high-profile trades this offseason which sent Josh Bell to the Nationals, Joe Musgrove to the Padres and Jameson Taillon to the Yankees.
Most of the players the Pirates got back were young prospects who will need a couple years in the minors first, but in each deal, the Pirates got back one Major-League ready pitcher. In the Taillon trade, it was Yajure. David Bednar came over from the Padres, and Wil Crowe from the Nationals. Yajure and Crowe are starters, and Bednar is a reliever.
All three are in the same boat. They have minor-league options remaining, so even though there is a spot open in the rotation and potentially multiple in the bullpen, they could start the year in the minors and be promoted midseason. Regardless of if they are on the opening day team or not, the trio should make an impact on the 2021 club.
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Yajure has seen the least amount of spring game action thus far, appearing in only one game. Most of his work has been done through bullpens and side sessions.
Despite limited game time, the 22-year-old has left a positive impression with his new coaches thus far, showing why Baseball America currently has him ranked as the Pirates’ 10th best prospect.
“The thing that I really like out of him is his ability to execute four pitches,” Derek Shelton said. “He throws the ball around the plate, he goes after guys.”
Those four pitches are a four-seam fastball, a changeup, a curve and a cutter, which sometimes morphs into a slider. The fastball sits in the low-to-mid-90s, while the curveball and cutter both get a good amount of spin and movement.
Of those four, Yajure doesn’t feel as good about his fastball so far in camp, trying to cut more vertical movement on it rather than cut. The breaking ball is another story.
“Right now, I feel like I have a lot of control with my curveball,” Yajure said. “I throw it every bullpen, every game with confidence. I can control it really good.”
With a couple potential plus pitches, Yajure seems the most likely to challenge JT Brubaker for the fifth spot in the Pirates’ opening day rotation. That’s one of his goals for the year, to spend the whole season in the majors.
Well, one of his easier goals.
“The hard ones are try to make the All-Star team or [be] rookie of the year,” Yajure said. “The little ones are just be healthy, throw all the season in the big leagues. Throw more than 200 innings.”
Throwing 200 innings this year would be a heck of an accomplishment for any pitcher in 2021. It was rare even before COVID-19, and the only two Pirates to accomplish that over the last decade were Gerrit Cole (2015, 2017) and A.J. Burnett (2012).
It goes to show the high expectations Yajure has for himself. He heard for years that he was one of the Yankees’ top pitching prospects, but his focus was getting better and making sure he earned what he got.
“I’ve always been very diligent in not allowing that to get into my head,” he said. “I’m a person who takes pride in working hard for what I accomplish. I believe that once I allow that to get into my head, I’m going to lose my focus. I want to remain hungry. I want to remain as a player who’s working hard, who’s trying to grow and master every area of his craft.”
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When talking about Bednar, the first thing you have to bring up that he’s the new hometown kid. He grew up in Mars, Pa., about 25 miles north of the ballpark he’s going to call home in 2021.
And he is a true Pittsburgher. In his introductory call with Shelton and Ben Cherington after the January trade, the first words out of his mouth were, “How Yinz doing today?”
“It hasn’t really hit me until I actually got down here and saw my uniform, saw my name on the jersey,” Bednar said. “It’s been awesome so far. Just shagging BP yesterday, look around and saw all the Pirates jerseys it just kind of hit me. It was like, ‘Wow, this is real.’”
The second thing you have to bring up is his splitter, a put-away pitch that he learned from former All-Star Hideo Nomo and that can dive on hitters:
If that won’t get hitters out, then the 98 mph fastballs he’s throwing already in Bradenton might. Bednar closed out the game on Sunday, striking out two on heaters.
Since he is a reliever, Bednar is the safe bet to do the most pitching in the majors this year. Nothing is guaranteed, though.
“I’ve been keeping it pretty level-headed with it. I mean, it is cool, it is an awesome opportunity and everything, but at the end of the day, I’m still just going out to compete and trying to win a job.”
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Crowe got his first taste of the majors last season. It didn’t go well, allowing 13 runs over his three starts, lasting just 8 ⅓ innings. Reflecting on it, he felt he didn’t pitch the way he wanted to. He wanted to attack hitters, but instead was too passive.
Working with new pitching Oscar Marin, they began working on a new way to attack hitters: Lots of sliders.
“It's a pitch that, analytically, is really good for me,” Crowe said. “Learning all these things from coming over here to the Pirates, the slider is something that I can get ahead with and put guys away with. Get them off the heater, steal a strike early. Being able to throw that for a strike early and earlier in the count is a way that we're going to go about getting guys out this year."
Crowe has a five-pitch mix -- four-seam and sinking fastball, changeup, curveball and slider -- but had shied away from breaking pitches early. That’s in line with traditional baseball wisdom, but research suggests that it would benefit pitchers to throw more sliders and curves early. Crowe and Marin are going to experiment with that, and in Crowe’s last appearance Friday, a two inning outing, he threw a first pitch slider to five of his eight batters faced.
It’s part of a change in approach Crowe is having for his age-26 season.
“[I’m] able to go out there and have more of a game plan than I did before,” Crowe said. “Before, it was just go out there and pitch. Do whatever you want. This is it. Instead, now I've got a game plan, I know what my pitches are doing off of each other and what makes them better off of one another.”
Crowe has also dove deeper into his pitches play off each other. His fastball is not overpowering, sitting in the low 90s, but he does get good spin on his breaking pitches. In the past, he would throw each pitch around the zone, which meant his pitches had different looks, but they didn’t play off each other. Now, he’s buying more into tunneling and trying to fool batters.
“I think in the past when I was doing bad, I would get out of my tunnel,” Crowe said. “Every pitch was going to a different spot. So hammering the two-seam, the slider, the changeup, they play great off each other. The four-seam, the curveball, you know. Just mixing pitches up, down, in and out. He knows to talk down the analytical stuff where it's not too hard to understand when you're new to it, so it doesn't sound so foreign.”
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Those three have the potential to be members of the Pirates pitching staff for years to come. After a mostly quiet 2019-2020 offseason, the roster was significantly overhauled this offseason, with youth being the focus.
There is plenty of competition going on in spring training, and there are spots to be won. All three want to be among those who get those nods. But if they aren’t...
“What I want to do is help the team win,” Crowe said. “We're a bunch of good dudes here, a bunch of great players. Whatever that may be, whatever they want me to do, is what I'm going to do.”
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Pirates picked up a baker's dozen worth of runs Sunday on 15 total hits from 12 different players. The biggest hit of the game was a bases clearing double from Dustin Fowler, who has made some hard contact the past two days.
Ke'Bryan Hayes, Adam Frazier and Kevin Newman also doubled.
And of course spring training wins mean nothing, but that is four for the Pirates, one more than they had all of last season.
"The spring training record does not matter," Shelton said. "It is nice that we won more than three games, I will say that. But I think that our guys are getting better at paying attention to details is important. And definitely winning some games and being in games where you’re doing things right helps it."
• Newman went 2-2 for with a double and an RBI, but exited after the third inning with left hamstring tightness. Shelton said the move was precautionary.
Frazier got the start at DH and saw his first spring action after being sidelined for most of camp with a groin injury. He went 2-for-3, and should be available to return to the field soon.
• JT Brubaker's second start of the spring went smoother than the first, staying in the strike zone and working around two hits in two scoreless innings.
Interestingly, most of Brubaker's fastballs were up in the zone Sunday, a departure from the norm for the sinker baller. It's something that he wants to work on this spring and going forward.
"I want to be able to nail that top line across the top of the zone," he said. "I think that's a pitch that's coming back into baseball a lot."
• Richard Rodriguez made his spring debut, and while he was the one to surrender the only run to the Orioles Sunday, he was in the zone and his fastball was sitting comfortably at 92-93 mph. It wasn't like last year where he was throwing 90 mph in his first couple outings of the season.
Kyle Crick was a bit more erratic and walked a batter, but he struck out the side. His fastball topped out at 93.6 mph, better than any pitch he had last year. The slider was still in the high-70s, but his fastball velocity is climbing like it did every year besides 2020.
Chase De Jong pitched two innings, Chasen Shreve and Clay Holmes both gave a frame and Bednar closed things out in the ninth.
• A couple oddities to file under "Weird but True:"
Phillip Evans had a third inning plate appearance against Orioles pitcher Evan Phillips. Evans drew a walk.
Jacob Stallings swiped third on a double steal. "I was just really excited he didn’t pick up third base, a la Rickey Henderson holding it over his head." Shelton said.
• The Pirates made a trade mid-game, acquire Duane Underwood Jr. from the Cubs. Carson Fulmer was designated for assignment to make room on the roster.
• Monday is an off-day in Bradenton. Be sure to check out Mound Visit in the morning.
