BRADENTON, Fla. — It’s been an impressive and memorable spring for a few recent trade acquisitions on the Pirates roster.
Mars native David Bednar (Joe Musgrove deal) has been one of the feel-good stories of camp, striking out nine in four scoreless innings, while Miguel Yajure (Jameson Taillon) sawed through the heart of the Braves order earlier this week during a pair of scoreless, hitless frames.
In a 7-5 victory over the Orioles at LECOM Park on Thursday, right-handed pitchers Wil Crowe (Josh Bell) and Roansy Contreras (Taillon) took their turn on the bike, delivering four scoreless innings while striking out five.
Making his Pirates debut, Contreras was all smiles and wound up earning the win after Will Craig homered in the bottom half of the seventh inning.
Contreras, 21, was consistently around 96-98 on the stadium radar gun and also broke off a couple knee-buckling curves. Although he has not yet pitched above Class A, the Dominican Republic native came as advertised — with plenty of velocity and electric stuff.
Currently considered Pittsburgh’s 19th-best prospect by MLB Pipeline, Contreras is someone the Yankees liked so much that they stretched to sign him out of the Dominican Republic for $250,000 in 2016.
“Sitting next to [pitching coach] Oscar [Marin] and [bullpen coach Justin Meccage] and watching that, watching the ball jump out of his hand at 98 and then being able to spin it, yeah it was fun,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “Talking to him afterwards, the only thing I asked him is if he had fun, because I know it was fun watching him.”
It’s possible — though maybe not terribly likely — that Contreras will start with Class AA Altoona in 2021 after he went 12-5 in 24 starts with Class A (full season) Charleston in 2019, the last full minor league season. Contreras struck out 113 over 132 1/3 innings, walking just 36 and pitching to an ERA of 3.33.
His velocity is also very good, but he has a high spin rate on his curveball and an advanced feel for his changeup, which isn’t always the case for Latin pitchers. (A greater emphasis is often placed on velocity and spin.)
Crowe’s stuff isn’t quite as nasty, but he steadied the game for the Pirates following a rough third inning for Chasen Shreve (three earned runs). The righty allowed a single to start but then got a double play when Stevie Wilkerson appeared lost on a fly ball that Phillip Evans caught.
The Pirates got three scoreless innings out of Crowe, who threw 33 just pitches, 22 for strikes.
Thinking back
A year ago Friday was when baseball shut down because of COVID-19, the same for other sports.
Asked about it Thursday, Mitch Keller said he remembered exactly where he was and what he was doing whenever the news broke. Of course, he was in basically the same spot. The Pirates played a game at LECOM that afternoon, finishing right as baseball hit the pause button.
“Yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday, honestly,” Keller said. “Musgrove was throwing. I think he was slated for four innings that game. We were all just kind of in the clubhouse wondering why we were playing. The NBA got shut down, everything else was getting shut down, and we were playing spring training games. It just kind of felt weird that we were still playing, then we found out later that day.
“It’s just crazy, how a year difference and we’re still kind of ... we know more about it but we’re still kind of going through the same struggles. Hopefully here soon it will be over with and we can get back to playing baseball and not worrying about protocols.”
Facing a legend
Keller took the mound on Thursday trying to work on his fastball command, release point and all the little things pitchers do this time of year. He also couldn’t help but sneak a peak in the other dugout at starting pitcher Felix Hernandez, the legendary former Mariner who’s trying to earn a job with the Orioles.
Hernandez won the American League Cy Young Award with Seattle in 2010. Even more famously, Hernandez threw the most recent perfect game in MLB history — Aug. 15, 2012 — and the 23rd overall.
Unfortunately for Hernandez, his velocity remains a concern — his sinker averaged just 85.3 mph against the Pirates — but Keller said it was cool going toe-to-toe with one of the most dominant pitchers in recent baseball history.
“Even though it's just spring training, it’s kind of sweet to be able to say I toed the rubber with a guy who’s thrown a perfect game,” Keller said. “All the accolades he's had over his career, it's kind of cool to be able to say I pitched on the same mound as him in the same game.”
Keeping tabs
Couple newsier items to come out of Shelton’s postgame Zoom call:
• Gregory Polanco was away from the team because his son was born but has already returned to Bradenton and completed the intake process for COVID-19. The Pirates are waiting on the results.
Polanco, who’s hitting .455 with eight RBIs this spring, has not appeared in a game since this past Saturday.
• Shelton said shortstop Liover Peguero will likely be delayed another week. He was late arriving to the Pirate City portion of spring training, stuck in the Dominican Republic. The Pirates have not explicitly said why Peguero was late, but it’s presumed to be travel-related.
• Luis Oviedo, one of the Pirates’ Rule 5 picks last December, is “backed up” because he was late getting to the United States, Shelton said, adding that Oviedo “has not pitched yet.” Shelton did not specify whether that meant in games or period.
Shelton did say he expects Oviedo to pitch in some capacity in the next week.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: March 11, 2021, 10:35 p.m.