BRADENTON, Fla. -- Major League Baseball will experiment with a pitch clock during the exhibition season and Clint Hurdle is unconcerned about how it will affect the Pirates’ pitching staff.
Pitchers will have 20 seconds after receiving the ball to throw a pitch. There will be no penalties assessed in spring training games for violations, though a ball will be added to the count if the rule goes into effect during the regular season.
The Pirates open Grapefruit League play Saturday against the Phillies in Clearwater, Fla.
The Pirates have an organization philosophy that pitchers should take no longer than 15 seconds between pitches. That is why Hurdle believes his pitchers won’t be rattled by the clock.
“It’s a matter of trusting the work you’ve done before, trust the catcher, don’t walk around the mound,” Hurdle said Tuesday following the Pirates’ spring training workout at Pirate City. “We’ll be fine.”
Hurdle isn’t one to usually comment about potential rule changes and other issues pertaining to MLB. However, he sounds like a man who feels the pitch clock being instituted for the regular season is inevitable, perhaps as soon of this year.
“It’s part of the progression of the game,” Hurdle said. “Who doesn’t like to be efficient with their time without rushing?”
• Right-hander Rookie Davis is expected to report tomorrow. He was signed to a minor-league contract Monday as a free agent with an invitation to minor-league camp.
The Pirates will have 62 players in camp when Davis arrives, including 34 pitchers.
The 25-year-old Davis is a low-risk/high-upside play after recovering from hip surgery that cost him most of last season in the Reds’ organization. He was considered a prospect of note with the Yankees before being traded with three other minor-leaguers to Cincinnati for closer Aroldis Chapman during the 2015-16 offseason.
Hurdle spoke with Davis on the phone Sunday.
“This guy is driven,” Hurdle said. “He’s got a plan on getting some things done. He’s motivated. I just like the fact when you talk to him, you’re talking to a ballplayer.”
• The Pirates are going with their “core four” starting pitchers – Hurdle’s term for them – in minor-league camp games during the early part of the exhibition season. Thus, Jameson Taillon, Trevor Williams, Joe Musgrove and Chris Archer won’t see any Grapefruit League action until sometime in March.
The Pirates want to give as many innings as possible against big-league competition to such pitchers as Davis, Steven Brault, Nick Kingham, Francisco Liriano and Jordan Lyles, who have a shot at the one open spot in the rotation.
The same goes for the starters likely to begin the season at Triple-A Indianapolis, including Mitch Keller, J.T. Brubaker and Clay Holmes.
• Pablo Reyes will get a long look at shortstop this spring as the rookie attempts to make the team as a utility man.
Reyes did not see any action at shortstop during an 18-game stint with the Pirates last September. He also hasn’t played the position regularly since 2012, when he was in the rookie-level Dominican Summer League.
• Bob Nutting will meet with the media tomorrow morning. It will be interesting to see how he explains the Pirates having a projected $73-million payroll on opening day, which would be the second-smallest in the major leagues, only above the Rays’ $60 million.
