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Pittsburgh Pirates Jared Triolo practices during spring training at Pirate City in Bradenton on Monday, Feb 20, 2023.
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Pirates’ savvy defender Jared Triolo continues adding to toolkit in the field, at the plate

For the Post-Gazette

Pirates’ savvy defender Jared Triolo continues adding to toolkit in the field, at the plate

BRADENTON, Fla. — Jared Triolo’s defensive prowess at third base has been well documented.

Triolo won a minor league Gold Glove while spending the 2021 campaign in High-A Greensboro. He followed up with another stellar season in the field with Double-A Altoona, one that earned him Bill Mazeroski Defender of the Year honors from Pirates brass as the organization’s top defensive minor-leaguer. He’s only made 23 errors across over 2,000 innings of minor-league baseball.

“Third base, coming in, going back, he just gloves everything,” said Matt Gorski, who played with Triolo in Altoona last season. “Once he gets the ball, you’re out. I think that’s the biggest thing — there’s no throwing errors ever. I think that can be a big thing for third basemen, but once he gets the ball in his glove, you’re pretty much out.”

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Even players who’ve never taken the field with him, like outfielder Cal Mitchell, have heard about Triolo and his glove that may as well be slathered with glue. But if he wants to stick with the Pirates’ big-league club, Triolo is going to have to craft a different role for himself because, well, Ke’Bryan Hayes.

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That’s not to say if Triolo makes the opening day roster that he couldn’t get the occasional start to spell Hayes. But the odds of him supplanting a player with the most lucrative contract in Pirates history are essentially zero.

So when Triolo arrived to spring training this year, he brought a few gloves with him, including a first base mitt. After dabbling at shortstop and center field with the Altoona Curve in 2022, the Pirates have challenged Triolo to add a fourth position to his resume.

“I think it shows that the organization has a lot of trust in me in different positions and they value my athletic ability,” Triolo said of the addition of first base to his duties. “I think that’s pretty cool.”

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Gorski shared the diamond with Triolo in Altoona for a good number of games and commended him on both his understated versatility and quick reaction time. The latter trait is much needed at the hot corner, which makes Gorski think Triolo would do just fine in further fielding opportunities at first.

“They just need him on the field any way they can get him on the field, in the lineup,” Gorski said. “His glove’s so good at third base. The other’s corner’s not going to be too difficult for him, I don’t think.”

He’s only played five innings at first thus far, but so far so good for Triolo down in Bradenton. Should he stick at first, Triolo’s bat will need to follow in the manner that it has produced for him at times in the last two minor-league seasons.

Triolo has slashed pretty well in the minors, producing a cumulative .281/.360/.436 in 280 games. He’s never struggled with putting the ball in play, considering Triolo’s strikeout rate in a season has yet to eclipse 20%.

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A knock on Triolo has been his lack of power, though, a fair criticism considering he only has 26 home runs in his minor league career, 15 of which came with Greensboro. Triolo got off to a slow start in Altoona, driving in just two runs with no homers and just seven extra-base hits that were all doubles in the months of April and May.

Gorski, who didn’t join the Curve’s roster until June, remembered looking at box scores and seeing that Triolo was getting on base but not fully utilizing his 6-foot-3, 212-pound frame.

“I’d be like, “Jared, hit some homers,’ ” Gorski said. “I know he had a lot of talks with a lot of our hitting guys halfway through the year and they’re like, ‘Hey, you’re doing all the great things with your power and everything, but you got to hit the ball hard and just start swinging more aggressively.’ ”

Triolo flourished from June onward, hitting .293 while smacking all nine of his four-baggers and an additional 14 doubles and five triples. It was a step in the right direction that more closely resembled that 15-homer season.

“I think he really took that to heart a little bit, and you can see, the second half of the year, the numbers were incredible,” Gorski said. “People were posting them everywhere because they were so good. He puts the bat on the ball at a really, really impressive rate. Just him getting the head out is something really important for him and he’s a really good hitter when he can do that.”

While Triolo’s yet to get a hit thus far in spring training, he’s demonstrated polished discipline at the plate with three walks. At no surprise to those who’ve played with him in the past, he’s yet to strike out, too.

The key for Triolo as spring training progresses is to make good use of his consistent contact and not be afraid to let it rip, much like he did down the stretch with the Curve in 2022.

“I’m just trying to carry over what I was working on at the end of last year, staying through the ball and hitting backspin balls into the gap,” Triolo said. “Hopefully, I’ll start getting a couple of those here pretty soon.”

Andrew Destin: adestin@post-gazette.com and Twitter @AndrewDestin1.

First Published: March 4, 2023, 11:00 a.m.
Updated: March 5, 2023, 3:56 a.m.

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Pittsburgh Pirates Jared Triolo practices during spring training at Pirate City in Bradenton on Monday, Feb 20, 2023.  (For the Post-Gazette)
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