With Cederlind injury, Cahill signing, pitching depth paramount

BRADENTON, Fla. -- The Pirates continued to get good pitching Friday, and with the aid of a couple Blue Jays errors, they would win, 2-1, in eight innings at LECOM Park.

As a team, the Pirates have a 3.34 staff ERA this spring, second only to the Marlins in the Grapefruit League. And on Friday, most of the pitchers used were depth guys, including starter Chase De Jong, who gave three scoreless innings.

But the name of the game this spring training, and this season, is pitching depth, and the Pirates were dealt a blow there Friday with the announcement that Blake Cederlind was headed to the 60-day injured list with a UCL strain.

Cederlind is the Pirates’ most electrifying reliever prospect, and while he will get a second opinion on his right elbow, Ben Cherington confirmed Friday that Tommy John surgery is a possibility, though not a forgone conclusion yet. Even in the best-case scenario where Cederlind can come back with rest and rehab, he will be unable to pitch for months. 

"It's an unfortunate situation for him and for us," Derek Shelton said about Cederlind. "We just have to see what we have moving forward, in terms of what the doctors say."

The news came at the same time the Pirates added another pitcher, Trevor Cahill, to the roster, signing the 12-year veteran to a one-year contract. Cherington said he would like to have six guys on the team who can start, and Cahill has been a swingman the last few years. He will be getting to camp late, but he is up to 60 pitches in his workouts. That wasn’t against professional batters, but it’s a decent foundation to start.

The Pirates were talking to Cahill before they knew about Cederlind’s injury, which was sustained in his outing Wednesday against the Yankees, but it illustrates the Pirates’ concern. After the drastically shortened 2020 season, the feeling around the league is that there are going to be a lot of pitcher injuries, like there were last year. Teams have ideas on how to take care of pitcher’s arms, but the only way they can guarantee getting through the year is with depth.

“Whether we break [camp] with 13 or 14 [pitchers], I don't know yet, but we're certainly going to use a lot more than that as we move through the season,” Cherington said. “We just want to build that depth as far as we can here during the spring.”

The Pirates seem to be in a better spot depth wise this year after acquiring several young major league-ready pitchers in trades, like starters Miguel Yajure and Wil Crowe and reliever David Bednar, and bringing in more arms since camp has started, like Cahill and Tyler Anderson.

Duane Underwood Jr. also fits in the latter category after being acquired from the Cubs earlier this week. He was once one of the Cubs' best pitching prospects, following a model of the Pirates looking for players with untapped upside. He needs to earn a spot on the team, but Cherington identified Underwood Jr. as someone who could potentially be a multi-inning reliever, a role that is even more valuable in 2021.

“I feel like I’ve really worked hard,” Underwood Jr. said about his preparation. “I think there are a lot of innings in this arm, a lot of really good innings. I want to prove myself.”

And there have been some pleasant surprises in camp, one of whom pitched Friday -- Edgar Santana. After not appearing in a game the last two years because of Tommy John surgery and a PED suspension, he has been perfect in his three outings this spring. That included his two strikeouts in his 1-2-3 inning Friday.

‘It's difficult, when you haven't been playing for two years, to be able to execute,” Shelton said. “He's done a nice job. It's been really good to see."

The Pirates are going to have to open some roster spots before the regular season to add non-roster players like Todd Frazier, and those cuts will likely come on the pitching side. Even with those impending loses, the Pirates should be in a better spot depth wise than they were last year. The question is will it be enough.

“Generally, guys are tracking pretty well, knock on wood, from a health perspective,” Cherington said. “So we're encouraged, and that's good. We'll have some tough decisions here between now and when we leave from Chicago in terms of who ultimately is in that group of 13 or 14 guys.”

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• De Jong made his first start of the spring, and while he gave up four hard-hit balls, he only allowed one hit and one walk in his three innings.

He relied primarily on his fastball and slider, throwing them 21 and 11 times, respectively, out of his 38 pitches. The fastball was sitting 91-94 mph.

"It was good to see," Shelton said. "He has the ability to spin the fastball up in the zone. It's something that we knew and we liked about him, and we saw it today."

• The Pirates got their only two runs on Blue Jays errors.

In the first, pitcher Thomas Hatch tried to pick off Dustin Fowler at third, but he threw it away and allowed the opening run to score.

The second was far more entertaining.

With two outs in the fifth, Rodolfo Castro hit a line drive out to left that Lourdes Gurriel Jr. thought he caught. While it was in his glove for a moment, it bounced, and by the time he realized what had happened, Castro was on his way to a little league home run.

The play was too eventful for a gif. Here’s the video:

Give credit to Castro, he never stopped running, mostly because third base coach Joey Cora was so emphatically waving him on. 

"If you don't run hard, you don't score on that," Shelton said. "Joey made a really good decision, but it comes down to Castro running hard from the get go. Not giving up on the play, and he ends up being the winning run in the game. Credit to him."

• Before the game the Pirates announced they had signed the remaining 30 pre-arbitration players on their roster.

The idea of potentially signing players long-term was brought up in the Zoom call, and while Cherington said the Pirates did have conversations about players contracts, he expects the focus to be on one-year deals this year.

"We’re always open to conversations," Cherington said. "We had open dialogue last year. We want to continue that, so I think hopefully players know that’s something we’re open to talking about. And ultimately, that’s a personal thing that we would not talk about publicly."

• The Pirates are still working on plans for their alternate site, but they don't have a location or coaching staff picked out. Altoona has offered to host again, but Cherington said he wanted to make sure that they will be ready for their season in May. 

"I think best case, we can keep that group in Pittsburgh somehow," Cherington said. "So we're looking at ways we might be able to accomplish that. We're going to need to have resolution on it soon, so hope to have it soon."

• The Pirates are heading back to Tampa, Fla. to take on the Yankees again Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.

JT Brubaker will make the start against Corey Kluber. Also pitching for the Pirates will be Richard Rodriguez, Geoff Hartlieb, Bednar, Max Kranick, Yerry De Los Santos and Blake Weiman.