David Bednar's back.
As in, all the way back: He closed out both of the Pirates' victories in the just-completed series with the Dodgers, he's converted 11 consecutive save opportunities, and he's recorded a 1.26 ERA in his past 15 appearances. And less tangibly but no less real, he's regained that letters-high fastball that gets whiffs galore, the Butler boy's bread and butter.
As he told me, "Yeah, it feels good."
It should. He's good. He's among the best at what he does.
And if a management move hadn't messed him up for a month, he could've continued being among the best all along and, within that, his team wouldn't have fallen into last place as it did last night at PNC Park with an 11-7 loss:
MLB
Yeah, yeah, I know: Game and a half back in the wild card, game and a half back of the Cubs, blah, blah. But last place is last place in everyone's world but that of Ben Cherington, and no one can dispute the isolated concept that being four games below .500 isn't an optimal outcome to date for a team that'd been projected by this same GM to contend for a playoff spot.
To my point: If Bednar hadn't blown three of his first four saves and recorded an 11.70 ERA through April's end, things would be plenty different.
To further my point: It was Cherington and staff who opted to take Bednar across Florida, from Bradenton to Miami, to open the season against the Marlins, even though he'd been shut down for most of March with a strained lat. No rehab. No extended spring. And, according to one source on location while I was there covering that opening series, there was no reason whatsoever to bring Bednar so soon.
Because the lat's an upper-body injury, it'd directly affect his pitching. And because Bednar wasn't pitching through the end of Grapefruit ball, he'd have to throw in anger for the first time in big-league games ... which he didn't do well. His command was off, particularly with his curveball that's forever kept hitters off his heat, and all else went awry as a result. The same source would tell me five weeks later that Bednar was compensating for all of the above and that he should've been left in Bradenton until all the way ready.
I'd then hear more of that from other people, all of them within or close to the Pirates.
Stuff like this can't happen at the top level. Just can't. And to the credit of the original source, all of this was forecast before the season's first pitch.
• Not really related, but there's been zero trace of extension talks involving Bednar. And remember, that was supposed to be a thing this past offseason.
• When Paul Skenes described his throwing a fastball to Shohei Ohtani as "big on big" a couple nights ago, it provided yet another example of his awareness of his own importance, even as he shows not an iota of ego. That's not just rare. It's precious. It's Sidney Crosby material. And it's not at all uncommon for Skenes behind the scenes, either. He knows who he is and how good he can be, and he runs from neither. At the same time, he'll still approach Andrew McCutchen with the awe of a child, as I watched him do at PNC Park this week.
• Jared Jones told me he took a lesson from his lousy start in Detroit, learning that the Tigers could come out swinging at everything and he'd have to adjust. He'd brace for the Dodgers to do the same and, even though they were more mixed in that regard, his own added edge to first pitches kept him that much sharper. When I spoke back to him that he might've gained way more from that Detroit start than he'd told me up there, he nodded and replied, "Oh, yeah."
• Expect Martin Pérez back sooner rather than later. Like, maybe within a week. Because his injury's to the lower body, specifically the groin, he's been able to keep his arm fresh without interruption. No rehab needed.
• Not getting the impression Jack Suwinski's back to stay, including from Suwinski himself.
• Beyond weird to experience the PNC Park press box being packed, as it was all week with Japanese reporters tailing Ohtani. Not quite at a playoff level, but akin to a home opener. Maybe 50 of them on hand, each from a separate sports daily over there. Crazy. All to cover one guy.
STEELERS
• Calvin Austin's already made a very big -- and very positive -- impression on Arthur Smith, per a source. The focus, according to the kid himself, has been on plain old route-running. Everyone's known he can burn with the best, but Diontae Johnson's departure pushed him "to become as diverse as I can be" when offering quarterbacks options, as he told me. Imagine if that matters come September, huh?
• So has ... um, Dan Moore? Meaning an impression on Smith. Stay tuned.
• Not going to take this too far, and please don't seek specifics, but the offensive line's a lot tighter this year in large part because of subtraction. Still feel it's worth sharing. Camaraderie and cohesiveness matter more with this positional group than any other.
• The mutual trust and affection between Cam Sutton and the Steelers is anything but new. I reported in this very feature nearly a year ago that, when Sutton signed with the Lions, it was to be closer to his two young daughters in Detroit and that, when he informed the Steelers of his decision, he was literally in tears over it. A reunion always was the likeliest scenario upon the Lions releasing him, provided the Steelers could do due diligence on the awful allegations made in the original affidavit against him. I'm informed that they did, but also that the NFL's own work isn't complete. We'll see.
• Cam Heyward's part of the Steelers from now until forever. Any statements/actions that appear to be to the contrary aren't to be taken seriously. He knows that. They know that. Everyone should know it. And that's the beginning and end of this specific discussion as far as I'm concerned.
• Everything about the defensive acquisitions/alignments to date are aimed at single primary goal: Free up Minkah Fitzpatrick to find the football. And no one's more fired up about that than the man himself.
• Not sure I can recall anyone selling himself to Pittsburgh the way Russell Wilson is this summer. And I don't just mean joining Kenny Chesney on stage at Acrisure Stadium. It never stops with him. All directions. All people, important and otherwise. The engagement element never takes a moment off.
• The starting outside corners will be Joey Porter Jr. and Donte Jackson. No secret there. But Corey Trice Jr. continues to make visible progress from his knee injury and, within that, turn heads. He's also impressed off the field with a rehab commitment similar to that of Austin a couple years ago, in which he dedicated himself to acting as if he's active throughout to absorb as much as possible. Terrific kid.
PENGUINS
• Deadest of dead periods for the NHL when it comes to movement of any kind, and that's no accident: Gary Bettman urges all of the other 30 teams to keep a low profile during the Stanley Cup Final, and that's almost always honored.
• Last time the Penguins participated in the playoffs, Evan Rodrigues took a terrible retaliatory penalty that handed the Rangers a power-play goal and a Game 6 survival that fed right into New York's eventual seven-game series victory. That penalty, I was told at the time, so angered Mike Sullivan that it contributed to Rodrigues not being brought back that summer. Now, Rodrigues, who I thought more than made up for that lapse with a massive tying goal in Game 7, gets his crack at the Final with Florida. Good player. Gooder dude.
• I don't cover the Oilers, obviously, but I can state with certainty that adding someone as drop-dead serious as Paul Coffey to their bench would've represented a serious step forward for a long un-serious organization. Talk to the members of the Penguins' original championship teams, and they'll point to the Doctor, as Mike Lange famously labeled Coffey, as much as anyone for having aggressively fostered a winning culture on and off the ice in Pittsburgh. As Phil Bourque once told me, as soon as players saw that guy riding the bike after each game as if his life depended on it, no one else had an excuse.
• The Penguins would attest that the Panthers were among their toughest opponents this past season -- the past two seasons, actually -- particularly since Sergei Bobrovsky's long since stopped seeing black and gold in his nightmares.
• But oh my goodness, the Bob factor was once so real. The Penguins would openly set out to flick anything and everything in his direction, feeling it all had a chance to get through. Hard to fathom now.
• Thanks for reading our franchise feature. It'll return in two weeks after I'm back from vacation in Serbia.
• And for listening to my podcasts:
