In January, the Pirates surprised the baseball world by trading Jameson Taillon to the Yankees.
Four months later, the return they received for him looks like a steal.
The headliners of the deal were the two right-handed pitchers, Roansy Contreras and Miguel Yajure. Both pitchers are already on the 40-man roster, but it’s Yajure who has already made his Pirates debut.
He’s made two starts in the majors this season, the second of which was a masterpiece. Facing the first-place Giants a week ago, Yajure allowed just two base runners over five shutout innings. The only reason he was removed was because he was on short rest compared to the new once-a-week schedule in the minors.
Baseball America currently ranks him as the Pirates’ 10th-best prospect, but unlike many other top prospects across the league, his fastball sits in the lower 90s. His bread-and-butter are his breaking and offspeed pitches.
“Nothing’s ever straight, nothing’s ever the same,” Indianapolis pitching coach Joel Hanrahan told me. "He’s got the tools to be successful for a long time.”
Hanrahan said Yajure could probably throw seven pitches if he wanted, but he’s focusing in on his fastball, slider, cutter, curve and changeup, all of which can get batters out. When he becomes a permanent member of the Pirates’ rotation, he will have arguably the best pure stuff.
There could potentially be a spot in the rotation opening up soon, albeit a temporary one, after Trevor Cahill exited Wednesday’s game with a calf injury. However, Chad Kuhl made his first rehab start with Indianapolis Wednesday, and the Pirates could slide him back in the rotation and keep him on a strict pitch limit. Or they could give the ball to Yajure for another spot start.
And Yajure could get more spot starts throughout the year. The Pirates are planning to occasionally bring up another pitcher throughout the year to build in an extra off-day for their starters. Yajure and Cody Ponce are the only pitchers currently on the 40-man roster and would be the first in line for those opportunities.
But what needs to happen for him to stick in the majors?
The Pirates think he could still benefit from more reps in Class AAA, which is why Wil Crowe is currently the prospect in the rotation. Hanrahan has had Yajure focus on his lower-half mechanics so he can get the most out of his 6-foot-1, 220-pound frame.
Another reason is the Pirates don’t want to kick anyone out of the rotation right now.
“We’ve got a couple good guys in that rotation up there,” Hanrahan said. “As the season goes, you are always going to use seven, eight, nine, 10 guys in a rotation. I think the thing for him is he’s still young and has plenty of time to learn [in Indianapolis].”
There will be more opportunities to come, especially after the trade deadline, where Kuhl, Tyler Anderson and Steven Brault could draw interest. Until then, Hanrahan is going to look for Yajure to keep pitching with the same confidence he has thus far.
“It’s a matter of when,” Hanrahan said. “I think he’s ready to go, and he’s shown it up there in the two starts that he’s gotten up there.”
MORE PIRATES
• When a spot does open up in the Indianapolis rotation, there are two hard-throwing prospects who are ready to make the leap from Class AA Altoona: Contreras and Max Kranick. “I’m already asking for those two guys to come up,” Hanrahan said. Hanrahan has a long history with Kranick, both at the alternate site last year and at multiple stops in both the player and coach’s rise through the farm system. Contreras is a newcomer to the system, coming over in the Taillon trade with Yajure, and has been arguably the most dominant pitcher in the minors thus far, striking out 28 over 17 2/3 scoreless innings. He’s shown just about everything he can to prove he’s ready for the next level, except one weird thing. “I don’t want to say it out loud, but you almost want to see him have a tough inning and see how he reacts,” Hanrahan. “You don’t wish for it, but you’d love to see it.” -- Stumpf
• Mitch Keller’s inconsistencies this season have been confounding from a surface-level view. But Oscar Marin believes the 24-year-old right-hander is closer to a breakout than it seems. Exactly half of Keller’s total 26 runs allowed can be accounted for in just three specific innings this season, and Marin has taken notice. The pitching coach believes that the separator between the truly inconsistent season for the 24-year-old righty has been his ability to minimize those big innings and find a way to roll to the next one. “That's about it for me,” Marin said. “That's the only thing we see. When he has his bad outings, he's having to minimize through those big innings, and being able to roll to the next one.”
The path to consistency, according to Marin, is in Keller’s routines between starts.
“He's putting in the work between the sides. Trying to get better on things that he identifies or we identify as groups,” Marin explained. “It's just going to take a little time before we get there and be consistent from there. The good thing is that we've seen how dominant he can be.” -- Gerard Gilberto in St. Louis
PENGUINS
• The Penguins, like just about every other club, have made a point of trying to hold down expenditures during the pandemic because of the revenue lost when ticket sales had to be suspended. But as the NHL continues to move back toward pre-coronavirus operations, teams' attention is shifting toward more traditional issues. For Ron Hextall, who has been on the job for only about 3 1/2 months, that includes expanding the Penguins' scouting staffs, now that he's done assessing them. "We're going to make a couple of additions," he said. "It's something that we've kind of been evaluating as we go along. We've got some good people in place, but we'll expand, probably, the pro side a little more here. And the amateur side, possibly an addition or two." Precisely who will be hired -- or even the specific niche the addition(s) would fill -- apparently has not been determined yet. "Probably just, overall, more," Hextall said. "Whether it be a head guy or another cross-over guy who scouts the overall picture, not just (a geographic) area." -- Dave Molinari in Uniondale, N.Y.
• The Penguins are scheduled to fly home Saturday evening, after Game 4 of their first-round playoff series against the New York Islanders. But when they're at Nassau Coliseum tomorrow, things will be the same as they have since the season began in January. That means players will be seated at least six feet apart in the locker room and postgame meals will be consumed at the rink, with disposable dishes and plastic silverware. However, a team official confirmed the league's pandemic-related regulations will be relaxed on Sunday to allow, among other things, players to be closer together in the locker room and teams to have actual meals on their flights, rather than a bottle of water and a bagged snack. It might not seem like much -- and might not have an impact on anything that happens on the ice -- but players and team officials seem genuinely excited about the idea of taking another step toward normalcy. (Of course, whether the Penguins experience any of the changes pertaining to team flights hinges on how Games 4 and 5 of their series with the Islanders play out.) -- Molinari
• Hextall seems pretty confident that the annual prospects tournament in Buffalo, which was canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic, will return this fall. It's far from certain, however, that the Penguins will take part in it. "We're in the process right now of trying to figure that out," he said. Hextall was involved in a similar event during his time as assistant GM in Los Angeles, but said he leans toward having young players involved in a couple of prospects-only games, rather than in a full-fledged competition involving four or more clubs. "I tend to prefer the one or two rookie games, versus (a tournament)," he said. "I feel like kids play a lot of games, and I think there's work that can be done (in other settings), rather than just playing games, which they play a lot nowadays. My preference is playing one or two rookie games, and having the kids work with the development coaches, and the coaches for the other days." The Penguins have been involved in the prospects event now staged in Buffalo for more than a decade. It generally takes place about a week before training camp opens and previously was held in venues throughout Ontario, including Kitchener, Oshawa and London. -- Molinari
STEELERS
• Mike Tomlin has a reputation as a players coach around the league, but it's not because he takes it easy on his players or doesn't expect them to work hard. The Steelers are one of the few teams who still tackle live at training camp, for example. And Tomlin fines players on a regular basis. It has everything to do with how he interacts with players. "The one thing I’ve taken away from it so far is that he’s really a people person," rookie running back Najee Harris had to say last weekend at rookie minicamp. "He takes time out of the day to really get to know the players he’s drafted and who he has. He really cares for the players. He even comes into the locker room and chops it up with people. He’s just a ball of energy and a lot of people can feed off of it. He’s somebody that’s easy to want to play for because he’s just such a likable person." -- Dale Lolley on the South Side
• While the Steelers players said they will be skipping optional OTAs -- as did nearly every other team last month -- that doesn't appear to be what's happening in reality. I'm told that there is a healthy portion of the team showing up to put in some work on a regular basis. The NFLPA is trying to flex its muscles in this instance, and once again it's not working all that well. If you're a player who is playing year-to-year in the league, you're going to do what's best for you, not for a union whose biggest influence in your life is the dues it takes out of your check each week. -- Lolley
• One thing the NFLPA can affect is how training camps are run. The league has given teams the OK to go back to off-site facilities for camp. But that doesn't mean it will be the way it was before. For example, the Steelers have always housed two players per dorm room at Saint Vincent College. The union -- under the guise of COVID-19 safety -- could get the league to agree that teams that house players during camps cannot double them up in rooms -- or hotel rooms since some teams put their teams up near their training facility. Locker room space at Saint Vincent College also could be an issue for the Steelers if the league is still working under COVID-19 rules that require more distancing. -- Lolley
