Musgrove picks up where he left off in spring

The last time the Pirates were playing baseball as a team, Joe Musgrove was pitching in Bradenton, Fla.. He pitched into the fifth inning on that Mar. 12 afternoon, and shortly after exiting the game, he learned spring training was being suspended.

On Friday, the Pirates were back together, albeit in limited groups. Once again, Musgrove was pitching, this time in a simulated game at PNC Park as part of the first workouts of the team's summer camp.

Those two outings were not the same, though. He would say the difference between the two outings was "night and day," favoring the one that happened Friday.

"[It gave] a lot of confidence for me today just to get through those five innings and stay efficient and to see the ball spinning how it was in the fourth and fifth innings the way it was in the first inning," Musgrove said during a Zoom call after his workout Friday. "I didn’t feel like I was tiring or wearing out. Fatigue is setting in a little bit from the ups and downs, but I feel like I was still able to lock in and get the life that i needed in the late innings."

In the sim, Musgrove faced Gregory Polanco, Josh Bell, Colin Moran, Phillip Evans and Luke Maile and threw to Jacob Stallings. Five sim innings comes out to a 75-pitch outing.

"He looked really good," Derek Shelton said in a Zoom call once workouts were over. "Five innings, stuff looked good, walked off the mound healthy. The stuff looked sharp. It’s really not the first time because he’s been building up to pitch five innings. It’s not like he went zero to 100 on it. Very happy with how it went. [Pitching coach] Oscar Marin was very happy with the pitch execution and how the stuff looked."



Musgrove, and the rest of the Pirates' pitchers, did not stop throwing during the shutdown, though they did have to "deload" once they got back home and then build up their pitch count again. Marin and the coaching staff stayed in communication throughout too, so while it was time away from the team, it was not time wasted.

"I look at the progress that I’ve made in the last two and a half months, not only physically but mentally, knowing my adjustments and knowing when to slow myself down, knowing when to speed myself up," Musgrove said. "Those are all things that I really gained a good grasp of over this down time. So it was good for me to go out at five and come in at five and feel the difference between the two outings."

Pirates starting pitchers are expected to come to camp ready to throw four or five innings.

Coming into camp prepared is going to be even more important than usual because of its abbreviated length and the new safety protocols. The Pirates' original spring training was supposed to be six weeks long, and they were just two weeks away from opening day before the shutdown. This camp will be just three weeks, with no extra time allotted for potential exhibition games.

The actual workouts are going to be in staggered groups, which became even more staggered after the Allegheny County Health Department ordered Thursday to cancel in-person events of 25 or more people. The Pirates were still able to have their workout Friday, but they needed to make tweaks to their plan after the health department's decree.

"I think what it changed was just how we did our grouping," Shelton said. "I’d really like to credit [bench coach] Donnie [Kelly] and [director of sports medicine] Todd Tomczyk in terms of being aware of it and walking us through it."

The ordinance is not an excuse to not get the necessary work in during summer camp, but it may prevent some players from getting all the work they would want.

"Our coaching staff is doing a really good job of getting everything that we can get in with everybody for the certain time we have," Kevin Newman said in a Zoom call Friday. "It’s hard to explain because the optics of it are tough. But for the most part, we’re getting every single thing that we really do need, not necessarily everything that we want. So in a normal season, I’d go out there, just me and Joey Cora, and I can work on specific things for 30 minutes. I can work on one, individual play. I can’t do that now. But that’s something that I want, that’s not something I necessarily need. Right now, we’re getting everything that we need as players to perform."

Pitchers continued to throw side sessions and bullpens during the break and eventually moved on to live batting practice in late May.

For hitters, it was more difficult to find proper competition during the shutdown and stay safe doing it.

“For hitters, it was as much as we could given wherever we were and who we could face," Newman said. "Obviously every state had different protocol and different guidelines. I don’t know who all was able to do what, but the goal was definitely to see as many live arms as we could while we were in that quarantine phase. I think we all know, as hitters, that’s what’s going to help us perform during the season. I think everyone was trying to get those at-bats. It was difficult for some at times, but we definitely just did everything we could.”

The coaching staff stayed in communication with players during the shutdown, but until they see them in person, they don't know exactly where they are physically. But based on their expectations and off the players they have seen in person thus far, are they in better shape now or when they were in Bradenton?

“I think most of our guys are in as good of shape or better shape [now]," Shelton said. "With some of our guys, it’s just making sure – especially with our infielders and outfielders – they get back in spikes and doing baseball movements that maybe they could not replicate in their home cities or where they were working out and just more drill-specific stuff.

"I think we’re going to get a really good feeling for that here in the next couple days because guys will probably be sore in spots that they haven’t. I think our catchers are probably going to be a little bit leg-heavy tomorrow because of the fact they did catch some live BP. I think as we work through this and monitor this, we’re going to have a better idea of that.”