Discussions about a pitcher’s workload begin during spring training, ranging from ramping up for the year, the regular season and even potentially in a fall league or winter ball.
After most of the Pirates' pitchers did not appear in a competitive game in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, those discussions and plans were going to have to be fluid to try to avoid pitcher injuries.
“We laid out a plan, keeping it in perspective that they had missed an entire season,” pitching coordinator Josh Hopper told me recently. “Workload wise, they didn’t have the foundation that they normally had. Never before in baseball had people just missed an entire season. Maybe a rehab guy, but not an entire organization.”
For the most part, the Pirates have been bit their fair share by the injury bug, but it hasn't been overwhelming like we have seen in recent seasons. They lost Blake Cederlind to a Tommy John surgery during spring training, Minor-league right-hander Braxton Ashcraft also underwent the same procedure, and Rule 5 pick Jose Soriano required a Tommy John revision. Cederlind and Soriano's injuries are major factors towards why the Pirates are 10th in the league in number of days pitchers have been on the injured list, per Spotrac, at 1,010 (through Thursday).
Going by the compiled work of baseball writer Jon Roegele, those are three of the 70 Tommy John procedures confirmed by media outlets league wide since the start of March.
It’s a larger amount, but with those exceptions, the Pirates have generally avoided prolonged pitcher injuries among their top young arms.
“Ok, let’s just get to the finish line,” Hopper joked. “Everybody’s safe, everybody’s good. We’ll send them home in one piece.”
Not everyone has the same finish line, though. Especially those who have missed some time with injuries.
Because while the Pirates have been lucky in avoiding the big injuries, there have still been bumps, bruises and time off. To highlight some of the notable ones in the minor leagues, Miguel Yajure (forearm) Roansy Contreras (forearm), Carmen Mlodzinski (shoulder) and Michael Burrows (oblique) all were sidelined at least a month, but returned to competitive games recently.
But their outings have been limited to just a few innings. Yajure is the only one to pitch four innings, and that's by design. The Pirates value having a pitcher complete a season, but it doesn’t have to be as a full starter.
“If we only have a few weeks left, it doesn’t make sense to ramp this guy all the way back up,” Hopper said. “He does need some experience, [so] let’s give him a piggyback role and give him two to three innings at a time and still give him experience, but keep the volume down. That’s the safer play.”
The goal is for them to keep the routine of being a starter. Innings can be found elsewhere. That’s where winter ball and the Arizona Fall League come into play. For those who missed time, post-season baseball would probably suit them better to continue to build up their arm strength. Those who were healthy could be better off going to Florida instructs or beginning an offseason program.
That’s been the catch of this season. The goal has been to protect pitchers’ arms, but also build them up for next season so the same process doesn’t have to be repeated in 2022.
And, ideally, cut down on pitcher injuries.
“Every time somebody gets hurt, I take it personally,” Hopper said. “What can we have done better?”
MORE PIRATES
• I had an interesting conversation with a National League analyst this week, who told me the Pirates’ top offensive performer in the minors this season is a trade deadline pickup: Jack Suwinski. That rating was based off results, batted ball profile, peripherals, pitches seen per at-bat, age and level, so it’s a wide range of stats. The 23-year-old outfielder was acquired by the Pirates in the Adam Frazier trade, and while he has just been OK for the Curve in his brief time there, he tore up Class AA while with the Padres. In 101 games played this year, he has gone deep 18 times with an .867 OPS. The report I got on him said he has a good feel for the strike zone and power, but he is prone to whiffing on pitches in the zone. Still, he’s an intriguing player who will need to be added to the roster this offseason or he will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft. To round out the top three, the next two players in the Pirates’ system performance wise were Hoy Park and Canaan Smith-Njigba. -- Stumpf
• On the flip side, the same analyst had Jared Oliva as one of his worst performers in the system. It’s been a tough season for the 25-year-old outfielder, and a left oblique injury lingered for the early part of the season, but even with a couple of good months with Class AAA Indianapolis recently (a .385 on-base percentage in August and a .949 OPS in September entering play Thursday), he has been noticeably absent from the Pirates’ September call-ups so far. They parted ways with Jason Martin -- a similar speedy outfielder whose bat hadn’t translated to the majors in a limited sample size -- last year, so you have to wonder how secure Oliva’s spot on the roster is. -- Stumpf
STEELERS
• It's obviously a well-known fact Joe Schobert and T.J. Watt grew up in the same area of Wisconsin and played together for the Badgers. But Watt, who switched to linebacker from tight end as a redshirt sophomore, got some early advice on how to play outside linebacker from none other than Schobert. "T.J's good," Schobert said when asked how Watt looked Wednesday after his first practice. "He was my backup in college. I taught him one move, the chop-dip. I never see him use the chop-dip. He's taken it way farther at outside linebacker. It's good to be back with him. He's a fun guy to be around." Schobert recorded 9.5 sacks and 20 tackles for a loss playing ahead of Watt in 2015. In 2016, after Schobert had joined the Browns as a fourth-round draft pick, Watt recorded 11.5 sacks and 15.5 tackles for a loss. He now has 49.5 sacks in his first four NFL seasons. It's hard to believe he's only been playing the position six years and is now the highest-paid defensive player in the league. He was a tight end his first two seasons with the Badgers. -- Dale Lolley on the South Side
• Maybe it's only a Pittsburgh thing, but a lot of people seem to care about who wears the green dot on their helmet on game days, designating who is in communication with the sideline. Obviously, on offense the quarterback is that guy. Defensively, it really doesn't matter who it is, though you'd prefer it be a linebacker who is in the field at all times since he's in the middle of the defense. Each unit gets two players who can have the communication device. They just can't be on the field together. "We’ve got two guys that are green-dot capable, as you guys like to discuss," Mike Tomlin said of Devin Bush and Schobert. "The reality is there are multiple (green dot) helmets on the sideline, and you have the option between series to determine who that “green dot” is. So, we’ll exercise those options and leave it a little bit mystical." So, it can change from series to series which player is making the calls. The reality is that it's just not that big of a deal. -- Lolley
• So much for the idea that the Steelers are "cheap," or won't make Watt the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL. The "cheap" tag doesn't fit and hasn't for years. The Steelers have consistently spent to the limit of the salary cap -- perhaps something the people throwing that tired old line around should take note of. And at one point, LaMarr Woodley was the highest-paid outside linebacker and Troy Polamalu the highest-paid safety in the NFL. In fact, Woodley's $61.5 million deal signed the first week of August in 2011 was the second-biggest defensive contract in the league at that point, only behind Carolina's Charles Johnson, who signed a 6-year, $76-million contract just days before Woodley's deal was completed. This also overlooks the fact Ben Roethlisberger has made more than a quarter of a billion dollars in his career. Lest we forget. -- Lolley
• Watt's record deal, which includes a $35 million signing bonus, actually reduces his 2021 cap hit from $10.089 million to $8 million this season. He'll have fully guaranteed base salaries of $24 million in 2022, and $20 million in 2023, then make $21 million each in 2024 and 2025. That means his 2022 cap hit will be $31 million. The fact the Steelers trimmed some cap space this season makes one wonder if they don't have another signing or a roster move up their sleeve. According to Spotrac, after the Watt deal, the Steelers still have $12.4 million in available cap space. They still have a couple of days to sign their own players to extensions before the start of the regular season. Or, they could use some available money to sign a veteran offensive tackle after Week 1. Russell Okung or Mitchell Schwartz anyone? Then again, they also can roll whatever they don't use over into 2022. With Watt's deal now on the books, the Steelers have $51 million available next season. -- Lolley
PENGUINS
• Going to training camp on a professional tryout contract is a low-percentage way to try to earn a spot on an NHL roster. Guys who do that generally haven't been able to get a contract, even a two-way one that would come with a reduced salary in the American Hockey League. And those players not only have to demonstrate, in just a couple of weeks and perhaps a handful of appearances in exhibition games, that they can perform well enough to merit a spot in the league, but to convince the club that signing them would be a prudent use of salary-cap space and a spot on the league-mandated maximum of 50 players under contract. However, the odds might be a bit better than usual for center Brian Boyle and defenseman Matt Bartkowski, both of whom are scheduled to attend the Penguins' camp that will begin Sept. 22. With Sidney Crosby (wrist) and Evgeni Malkin (knee) pretty much guaranteed to miss at least the start of the 2021-22 season because of their respective surgeries, there should be a spot for Boyle if he can be reasonably effective in a bottom-six role. As for Bartkowski, a Mt. Lebanon native, Cody Ceci's departure opened a spot on the right side of the defensive depth chart, even if wouldn't be on the top three pairings. The Penguins are believed to have only 45 players under contract, so adding Boyle and/or Bartkowski wouldn't be a problem in that regard. It's conceivable that either or both might have to accept a two-way deal, even if they meet management's expectations, but that kind of contract is better than none. -- Dave Molinari
• Although the prospect of starting the season without Crosby or Malkin certainly adds some suspense to how the Penguins will deploy their remaining centers, in general, there really aren't that many major personnel issues to be resolved during camp. Settling on a replacement for Ceci as Mike Matheson's defense partner probably is the most obvious one, but deciding who should get the penalty-killing minutes Ceci and Brandon Tanev handled last season might be the most interesting. Ceci averaged two minutes, 32 seconds of shorthanded work per game, which was more than any teammate except Brian Dumoulin (2:45). Tanev, meanwhile, topped all Penguins forwards with an average of 2:24. His loss will be the biggest up front, but Colton Sceviour (1:21), Frederick Gaudreau (1:45) and Mark Jankowski (1:48), none of whom will return for the coming season, all pulled significant penalty-killing duty, too. -- Molinari
• The NHL often fares poorly in comparisons to other major sports leagues -- the idea that hockey must be a great game to survive the people who run it has been around for many decades -- but it does have the most logical contract regulations of any of the big-time operations in North America. Not only are deals guaranteed, which offers an obvious measure of security for players and cost-certainty for clubs, but they cannot be renegotiated, restructured or altered in any way (unless there is mutual consent to terminate it or the player is bought out, which rarely happens). NHL teams can't create salary-cap space by, say, converting a portion of a player's base pay to a signing bonus, or anything of that sort. There are times when things can get a bit complicated, such as when a club seeks some cap relief by placing someone on the Long Term Injured list, but as a rule, the NHL's hard-cap, no-tinkering system is a lot easier to decipher -- and, presumably, to implement and enforce -- than those in the NFL and NBA. -- Molinari
