BRADENTON, Fla. -- As he stomped off the mound after the fifth inning, Chase De Jong pounded his glove once, took a few steps, then tenderized the palm of his mitt twice more after he crossed the foul line back to the first base dugout.
The right-hander had just struck out Manuel Margot to complete his second inning of work in the Pirates’ 10-9 loss to the Rays on Wednesday at LECOM Park. It was De Jong’s only punchout over three frames, in which he allowed a run on four hits.
But the execution of the pitch -- a letter-high, 92.3-mph fastball tipped into Jacob Stallings’ glove -- was a driving factor in his return from the brink of leaving professional baseball entirely. Seeing the result of his efforts take shape caused the visceral reaction.
“I've been able to work so hard on being able to command that four-seam up and expanding up and away to righties with a little bit of cut to it,” De Jong said. “I knew I executed that against a really good hitter in Margot. I'm just an emotional guy. Got pumped. I also know that I'm competing for a job here. To go out there and get that punchy like that, I was just overcome. I was really excited."
The run De Jong allowed Wednesday was his first of the spring. And the runner who scored, Miles Mastrobuoni, reached base only after Anthony Alford lost his easy pop fly in the sun in center field.
De Jong, who has allowed six hits over eight Grapefruit League innings, said Wednesday that he hopes to be a “swiss army knife” or a potential starter stretched out to a swing role, for the club in 2021. He signed with the Pirates on a minor league deal in January, citing his previous relationship with Derek Shelton in Minnesota and Oscar Marin in Seattle as a reason this was a desirable location.
But regardless of the role, the 27-year-old understands that simply having a spot on a major league roster might not have been a possibility a year ago.
De Jong was released by the Twins in July of 2019 and had to prove his worth with the then-independent league Sugar Land Skeeters to finish the season.
“I had to figure it out. I wasn’t hurt. I was just a bad pitcher,” De Jong said. “I had to figure out, ‘Hey, I’ve got to get my curveball back. I’ve got to be able to go to the top of the zone. I’ve got to be able to command it and have the conviction up there and throw my other stuff off it and not walk guys.’”
When the pandemic shut down the sports world this time last year, De Jong was left without a major league job.
“Execution on the fastball, in Minnesota it was sporadic,” Shelton said. “I think he was learning how to use his stuff.”
So he returned to “Team Skeeters,” of the newly formed Constellation Energy League -- a four-team league in Texas started in the pandemic. It was before he got to this league that De Jong figured out how to get better, particularly gaining velocity and maximizing the potential of his unique fastball in a very strange way.
At the start of the pandemic shutdown, the Long Beach, Calif. native took some information made aware to him by the Twins and brought it to the side of the 405 freeway. The local COVID-19 restrictions prevented him from finding a throwing partner, so De Jong marked a spot on the side of the highway wall and made it his temporary pitching coach.
“I started throwing weighted balls, and I actually started throwing a tennis ball, kind of like you do as a kid, against a chalked target, really just trying to utilize that backspin of a four-seam fastball, because you can actually visualize it better with a tennis ball,” De Jong said.
What the Twins’ pitching coordinators pointed out to De Jong was the drastic vertical break or carry on his fastball. And pitcher’s that can command the top of the zone with this pitch can be effective in the majors.
“They're like, 'if you do this well, you're an everyday pitcher in the big leagues,' ” he said. “ 'If you don't do this well, I've already been released.' So it was: I had to get good at that, or it was time to get a 9-to-5."
After just a few starts in the Constellation Energy League, De Jong felt confident enough to call his agent and to relay the details of his improvement, which he felt warranted a major league job. Before he got to that point, however, the 6-foot-4 righty seriously considered hanging up the glove.
“[My family and I] all prayed about it and decided no, we’re not done yet,” DeJong said. “Never looked at plan B, this has always been plan A and really beared down and went down there, made the adjustment and made myself relevant again.”
The Astros took note of De Jong’s improvements in Sugar Land and signed him to a deal last August. He was recalled from the club’s alternate site three times, made three appearances, including two starts, in which he allowed 12 runs over 7.1 innings and was selected to the ALCS roster.
It was an opportunity that absolutely would not be possible without some serious improvements to an arsenal that may see some significant innings in Pittsburgh this season.
“When they called me in December and offered me a contract to come here, I was over the moon excited,” De Jong said. “This is just a phenomenal opportunity, and I knew that I needed to show up here ready to win a job.”
MORE FROM THE GAME
• The Mitch Keller-Tyler Glasnow pitcher’s duel was anything but. Keller ran into trouble immediately and actually got the hook twice in the first three innings. He recorded just one out and allowed three runs on four hits in the first and four runs on four more hits in the third. His best inning, in which he tallied all three of his strikeouts, actually started with a wind-aided homer to Ryan Boldt, Tampa Bay’s No. 9 hitter.
“I mean the execution, we have to get cleaned up. I think we would have an issue if we didn't see stuff. We have the stuff there,” Shelton said. “Fastball command has been an issue, and he continued to miss up. Then when he tried to go away, he ended up cutting across it. So some things that we do have to clean up. Mentally, I assume he's frustrated, and rightfully so after not commanding the ball, but something we'll talk about after the off day and get him back on track."
Keller has allowed 12 runs in five total innings this spring.
• Bryan Reynolds and Colin Moran both homered off two very good Tampa Bay pitchers. Reynolds, who has hits in six consecutive games and is batting .417 this spring, took Glasnow deep to right for a two-run shot in the third. Moran went dead center, also a two-run shot, against Nick Anderson in the fifth.
• Adam Frazier maintained his super human pace with two hits, including a triple, in three at-bats Wednesday. He’s 12-for-18 (.667) so far in Grapefruit League ball. He also scored a run after his first-inning triple when Ke’Bryan Hayes smoked a 108.6-mph single through the right side on the next pitch. Hayes, who is batting .423 this spring, also walked, stole a base and scored in two at-bats.
• As it turns out, reassigned players can continue to play in Grapefruit League games. This was good news for infield prospect Nick Gonzales, who contributed two RBI hits Wednesday. The 2020 first-rounder turned around the first pitch he saw from Anderson and drove it to the base of the wall for an RBI double in the sixth, then closed the gap to its final score with a bloop single in the ninth.
“I think that's what we saw when we drafted him,” Shelton said. “We're talking about a kid that never has played a professional game, so I don't think we worry about the beginning of spring training and what they're doing, but it was pretty cool to see.”
The Pirates reassigned five non-roster players to minor-league camp Wednesday: Infielder Ji-Hwan Bae, catchers Christian Kelley and Arden Pabst, right-hander Yerry De Los Santos and left-hander Blake Weiman.
• Blake Cederlind is still waiting to get a second opinion on his UCL strain. Phillip Evans is expected to return to game action this weekend after being scratched Monday with left hamstring tightness. Austin Davis (left elbow surgery), Tyler Bashlor (back stiffness) and Jose Soriano (Tommy John surgery) are all progressing with their rehabs and throwing.
