BRADENTON, Fla. -- Derek Shelton hasn't made clear his choice for closer. He told DK Pittsburgh Sports at PiratesFest last month he'd prefer to let that play out, while also citing Kyle Crick and Keone Kela as candidates.
Alex Stumpf interviewed Kela on this Tuesday morning, and I did likewise with Crick.
Crick had precisely the type of season he'd hoped in 2019 ... right through the first week of June. To that point, through 21 appearances, he'd posted a 1.83 ERA, a 1.02 WHIP and a .167 opponents' batting average. He'd basically been untouchable, an eighth-inning machine setting up Felipe Vazquez.
And then, following one series in Atlanta, it'd all begun dissipating. Three appearances, four runs, couple of them clearing fences, handful of walks ... and a handful of matching strikeouts.
With the latter making no sense.
"Nothing made sense," Crick would tell me on the final day of the season. "I still had my stuff, still had my movement, still had my swings and misses ... but they were on everything."
It didn't change, either. He'd wind up with a 4.96 ERA and 1.55 WHIP, both well above his career norms. And it wasn't until September -- once his season was finished by a cracked finger from that clubhouse fight with Vazquez in San Francisco -- that, with the help of one of the team's video coordinators -- not any of the various pitching coaches, mind you -- he'd picked up that he'd been tipping his pitches.
He explained that to me in detail at season's end but asked that I don't share specifics. Suffice it to say, with one specific motion in one specific situation, he might as well have plastered on the scoreboard what was coming next. And he was plenty displeased about it. Without ever citing names, I'm guessing that meant with Ray Searage but especially with Euclides Rojas, his bullpen coach with whom he -- and other relievers -- had frequently clashed.
"It bothers me," Crick told me that day, "because I know I could've given so much more to the team if the right people had my back. That's how it's supposed to work."
It is, actually. In the baseball culture, it's fully in the pitching coaches' domain to pick up such details.
But that's then, this is now, and so, so much has changed. The front office was wiped out. Clint Hurdle, Searage and Rojas, too, at the field level. And Vazquez ... oh, you know.
Which might explain why Crick reported Tuesday in soaring spirits and opened our one-on-one conversation with this regarding 2019: "I'm done with last season. All of it. Ready to move forward."
Beamed as he spoke, too.
"I'm strong, and I'm healthy," he continued before showing me the finger he still needs to flex a little extra before throwing. "And the one thing I never lose is my confidence. You have to believe you're going to get it done before anybody else will. If you do, you don't stay around long. I've got it. And I can't wait to get going."
That includes, he added, whatever any closer competition might look like. He and Kela are friends, but each is equally intense.
"I'm confident in this team's back end, no matter who's getting the ball," Crick would say, referring to the pen. "I don't know who's gonna be pitching in what inning and where, but I know we've got the people here to get the job done. I think that's up for us to determine, with the kind of camp we have, the kind of stuff we have, and who comes out the most confident. At the end of the day, confidence is key."
He lauded Shelton and new pitching coach Oscar Marin, as all the pitchers have been doing here. The new bullpen coach is Justin Meccage, who served as Searage's assistant last season.
"Everyone's been awesome. I've talked with Oscar a couple times and, I mean, we haven't worked together just yet, but everything I've heard from him seems very player-friendly and player-oriented."
He spoke just as effusively -- maybe even more than some of his teammates -- of the talent the Pirates have at hand, even after losing Starling Marte and Vazquez.
"It's a young team, a young pitching staff and, looking at ourselves, a young bullpen. But there are some pretty strong arms here. I mean, guys are gonna be throwing in the mid- to upper-90s with some nasty stuff. There's definitely talent here. There are players with high ceilings. We'll see how high those ceilings are with the instruction we get, and how how people grow within this season. Adversity will teach us everything we need to know about everybody. Anybody can pitch when they're doing well. When you got 10 scoreless behind you, it's easy to pitch."
I asked about some of the more dire forecasts for the Pirates' record this year.
"I think we'll shock some people. Without a doubt. I think we did last year, too, but we obviously fell off after the All-Star break with all the injuries. We had some guys who were really playing a lot, and I think it led to that. But I also think ..."
He paused. I knew where he was going, but I waited it out.
"I also think that this year, with this new staff, it'll be more player-friendly with more of a focus on what works best for each individual player, you know? It's really weird for me to talk to you about it because I don't really know how much people will appreciate what goes on in here. But it matters. It really does."
I'll spell it out, since Crick and I had discussed this countless times: The approach of the previous front office and, thus, coaching staff, was a one-size-fits-all. Everyone followed the same plan. Everyone was given similar instruction.
From the day Ben Cherington was introduced as GM in November, he stressed first and foremost the term 'player-centric.' Shelton has, too. Both use the term constantly. And what they mean by it is that, rather than overlooking individual issues -- such as, say, not picking up what went awry with Crick -- all concerned will be working with each player to make that player the best he can be.
"That's how it's supposed to be," Crick wrapped up before heading off to the weight room. "I'm looking forward to it, and I think we all are. Let's be the best players, the best team we can be."
