The Pirates decided last month that Roansy Contreras needed some time off.
It wasn’t that he was performing poorly — the right-hander had a 3.84 ERA in 50 innings of work in the majors this season. It was explained more as an innings limit. Contreras pitched just 61 innings all of last season with an injury, and the organization expressed a desire to be cautious with the rookie’s workload.
Well, that down time is over. Contreras was back in the Pirates’ clubhouse Tuesday, and manager Derek Shelton said Contreras will start against the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday.
Like it or not, this was the Pirates’ professed plan. On Sunday, though, general manager Ben Cherington said on his weekly radio show with 93.7 The Fan there were some developmental things Contreras wanted to work on while he was down but his work in the minors was mostly finished.
“I think he’s pretty much checked the boxes at this point in terms of what we’ve asked him to do when we sent him back,” Cherington said. “A big part of that was to build in some recovery in the middle of his first full major league season. ... Like we said before, our desire was to see him make starts in the big leagues again and be able to finish the season in Pittsburgh. He should be close to getting back soon.”
That answer, obviously, made it seem like Contreras’ return to Pittsburgh was imminent, and that turned out to be true.
That does make sense, given Contreras’ steady progression at Triple-A Indianapolis. After being optioned in early July, he took a few weeks off from pitching in games. In his first start back, he threw two innings and, over a four-start span, worked back up to five frames in his most recent outing.
As far as those “developmental challenges” Cherington discussed?
“You know I don’t answer developmental questions,” Shelton said when asked about them Tuesday. “Specifically, we will not talk about it. We’ve never talked about it. I think there are things that we do focus on and want to see. The other thing after doing that is just building him back up, to make sure he was able to come back and be a starter in the big leagues.”
Shelton went on to say the Pirates will continue to monitor Contreras’ innings the rest of the season. Even with the small break in the middle of the season, he’s well on pace to blow past the amount of innings he tossed last season.
“We’ll still monitor where he’s at because I think he’s thrown four innings and five innings in his last two starts,” Shelton said. “We’re gonna monitor him and our starters the rest of the way because we are gonna get to the point where innings are gonna become an issue. Tomorrow, it’ll be more based on what he’s done in his last two starts down there.”
Mike Persak: mpersak@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDPersak
First Published: August 16, 2022, 5:42 p.m.