BRADENTON, Fla. — Several former Pirates dropped by spring training on Tuesday at Pirate City, most notably Manny Sanguillen, John Candelaria and Omar Moreno. After the workout, manager Derek Shelton thanked those guys for appearing and said he hopes his players took the opportunity to chat with them for a few minutes.
Shelton didn’t need to tell Gregory Polanco.
Finally healthy and one of the more interesting storylines here thus far, Polanco has been working with Moreno on improving his play in right field, specifically with Polanco’s body position and staying lower to the ground.
That, Moreno explained, should help on balls on the ground, while the two men with similar builds also spent time working on going back for balls, another area that has ailed Polanco.
“He’s going to be OK, man,” Moreno said with a smile. “He keeps working.”
Polanco said the biggest issue for him right now is mental. Being 6-foot-4 (and maybe taller), Polanco has a lot of levers going at all times. Right field at PNC Park also isn’t without its challenges.
But Polanco, it seems, has re-dedicated himself to improving defensively, something the Pirates absolutely need from him.
“Just try to stay low and quick to the ball,” Polanco said. “It’s all in my mind. I’ve been working a lot with Omar.”
Despite plenty of promise when he made his MLB debut, Polanco has never really blossomed into an elite right fielder. His best defensive season was probably 2015, when he was tied for fourth in the National League in Defensive Runs Saved (11) among right fielders, per FanGraphs, and also tied for eighth in Defensive Runs Above Average (1.7).
In 2018, Polanco’s most recent full season, he was 6.6 runs below the league average.
“This year has to be good for him,” Moreno said. “We need him.”
Keller shines
A highlight of live batting practice Tuesday included Mitch Keller, who definitely has a different demeanor this spring.
Keller pounded the strike zone and made a couple of terrific pitches, drawing the attention of the Pirates coaching staff and everybody else watching. After Will Craig took an outside fastball to right field — a terrific piece of hitting by the first baseman — Keller came back with a nasty breaking ball to catch Craig looking.
“OK, that’s enough,” Craig said as he finished his turn.
“I think he carries himself in a really good way,” Shelton said of Keller. “He’s very quiet. He’s very calm. For starting pitchers, that’s an incredible attribute because there are going to be good days and bad days.
“Having been around him just a little bit, it doesn’t seem like he changes his demeanor much. I’m trying to get him to smile a little bit. Any time you’re a pitcher and you have that kind of demeanor, it’s very good because you don’t have those valleys as long.”
‘It’s noisy’
Another performance that generated buzz was that of hard-throwing righty Blake Cederlind, a 24-year-old whose fastball hums in the upper 90s.
Cederlind projects as a back-of-the-bullpen arm, likely in Class AAA. He spent much of last season with Class AA Altoona, going 5-1 with a 1.77 ERA and 42 strikeouts in 45⅔ innings before a last-season promotion to Class AAA Indianapolis.
At a Pirates CARE-a-van in January, Cederlind said he’s been trying to refine his breaking stuff.
“That’s going to be my biggest thing moving forward,” he said. “I don’t have a problem locating my fastball. I’m comfortable with that. But I need to improve the movement and location with my breaking stuff.”
Cederlind’s fastball definitely pops, the same as his blond locks in the Florida sun.
“That was fun to watch,” Shelton said. “It’s noisy. It’s loud. The ball jumps out of his hand. You get the blond hair going. You get the sinker going. That was cool to see. That was the first time for me seeing it live. That’ll make you smile.”
Kela misses
Closer Keone Kela missed Tuesday’s work because he has a viral infection, the Pirates said. Director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk is expected to provide an update Wednesday during his weekly session with reporters.
Around the horn
• Shelton had a good line after Keller delivered another terrific breaking ball, this one to Jake Elmore. “Looks like a young Justin Meccage,” Shelton shouted to Keller, needling his bullpen coach who was a few feet away.
• Polanco’s swing looks much more compact. He needs to cut down on his strikeouts, and an easy way to do that is by being shorter to the ball. Polanco, however, said he didn’t change anything mechanically with his swing.
“It’s just being healthy,” he said. “And not trying to do too much.”
• Josh Bell’s new throwing motion is a work in progress. When he has the proper amount of time and releases the ball from a true, three-quarters arm slot, the throw is more often than not on target, with plenty of snap.
There have been other times — usually with too much or too little time — where Bell has been prone to making mistakes.
“There are a couple throws here and there that are overthrown,” Bell said. “It’s a mechanical thing. It’s not because I’m overthinking or my timing is off. If I just spread my base out a little bit more and stay through my hips, then the ball’s on the money.”
• JT Riddle is extremely smooth as a middle infielder. Right now the Pirates have a lot of guys — Riddle, Erik Gonzalez, Cole Tucker and Kevin Kramer — for only a couple spots.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: February 18, 2020, 8:55 p.m.
