In 2020, the Pirates had 22 players hit the injured list, tied for the second most in baseball with the Cardinals, and trailing only the Marlins. While the Marlins and Cardinals had major COVID-19 outbreaks, most of the Pirates’ IL trips were due to on the field ailments.
That fell in line with what happened to the Pirates the year prior. In 2019, they sent 27 players to the injured list, once again the second most in baseball.
So in the Pirates’ offseason shaking up of the front office, there are changes coming to the strength and conditioning and rehab and physical therapy departments.
General manager Ben Cherington said the goal of the moves is so that players and the medical staff can be more collaborative in how they approach a player’s individual goals.
“It’s trying to go from multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary, where it’s not just having the expertise, but it’s those people really working closely together and learning from each other,” Cherington said Thursday. “So if a pitcher’s trying to command a fastball better, and there’s something in his delivery that he’s working on, of course the pitching coach is going to think about that and, you know, work with the pitcher to design a practice plan. But we need our strength coach, we need our PT [physical therapist], we need our head trainer thinking about the very same thing. How can we help this guy move better so that he can do that in the bullpen or so that he can do that in the field?”
Todd Tomczyk will remain the director of sports medicine, though most of the other heads have changed.
Rafael Freitas is the new Major League head athletic trainer. He spent the last four years as the Brewers’ assistant trainer, and made stops as a trainer in the minors and Dominican Republic from 2012-2016.
They also added Terence Brannic, a somewhat unconventional hire to be the head Major League strength and conditioning coach. Brannic had spent the past nine years in the Athletics’ organization, including the last three in the same role he now has with the Pirates, but he played college football over college baseball.
“That gives him a little bit of a unique perspective too, and he comes at things with that problem solving mindset,” Cherington said. “He isn't beholden to conventional wisdom all the time.”
He will be joined by Adam Vish as a strength and conditioning coach. He spent the previous eight seasons with the Giants.
“We felt like Terence and Adam really complement each other well and would be a good team together,” Cherington said.
Cherington added that the team is looking to add another strength and conditioning coach, which he said could be done soon.
Internally, the Pirates promoted Seth Steinhauer from minor league rehab coordinator to Major League physical therapist, and A.J. Patrick, who was the senior coordinator of rehab and athlete development the past three years, to the director of sports performance.
What does that entail for Patrick?
“That will be more focused on really how we’re helping players be better athletes, just move better, get stronger,” Cherington said. “So some of it’s rehab, some of it’s strength and conditioning. As we develop our sports science approach, that would probably come into that.”
The Pirates also announced that Josh Hopper as the new coordinator of pitching development. Senior pitching coordinator Scott Mitchell and assistant pitching coordinator Tom Filer were let go earlier this year, cutting just about every major tie to the old regime's approach to developing pitchers.
Hopper has spent the last three years with Dallas Baptist University, where he led a staff that went 43-20 and finished ninth nationally in strikeouts (600).
When asked what he likes about his new hire, Cherington said that Hopper isn’t just an expert on one specific facet of pitching, like design, game planning or developing programs. He is comfortable in all areas, which will be necessary when coming up with different ways to help a 16-year-old pitcher in the Dominican Summer League or a Class AAA pitcher develop.
“We just felt Josh stood out for how he thinks about all those pieces and not being fixed on one solution or one way to do things but really just thinking about being a problem solver for pitchers and looking at every piece of that continuum,”Cherington said. “He was able to articulate, we thought really effectively, how he goes about assessing a pitcher when you first get to know them and the physical assessment and pitch assessment and how that sort of informs the practice. And then we just got incredible feedback about him from coaches who have been around him, pitchers who have been around him, just in terms of the person and how much he cares about helping guys and how dedicated he is to his craft.”
Finally, Bryan Stroh will remain the senior vice president of baseball development, a role he inherited in April. He will work closely with Derek Shelton to oversea clubhouse operations, as well as oversee the arbitration process and other matters surrounding the team.
