After the minor-league season was cancelled in 2020, the question was which prospects would be able to take advantage of the time away from organized ball and find ways to better themselves.

Jared Triolo was one such player.

“I think you see it in the emergence of guys like Matt Fraizer and Jared Triolo as, for me, are major-league prospects that I don’t know if there was a lot of talk about those two guys when I came over here,” director of player and coaching development John Baker told DK Pittsburgh Sports recently. “Now … you go ‘wow.’ ”

Triolo excelled on both sides of the ball in 2021. In addition to hitting .304 with 15 home runs and 25 stolen bases, and the 23-year-old third baseman was recognized as the organization’s Bill Mazeroski Defensive Player of the Year Wednesday, as the Pirates continued to present their minor-league awards for the season.

“I definitely think they go hand-in-hand,” Triolo said over Zoom about succeeding in the field and at the dish. “With one, you get confidence doing one, it kind of leaks into the other one.”

Of course, the Pirates already have a defensively gifted third baseman in the majors in Ke’Bryan Hayes. Triolo knows that. The 2019 competitive balance round B pick got to spend some time working out with him last offseason.

“It’s good to see how he goes about his business,” Triolo said. “I kind of model what I do after what he’s doing.”

But for the most part, that time away last season was an opportunity to refresh and work on areas in his game he felt he needed to work on, including his defense. That included working on his mobility and doing plenty of defensive drills off of the wall.

“It was kind a little bit of a relaxing time to take a step back from the game for a little bit and focus on some of the stuff that I had been working on,” Triolo said. “Just spending some time with family and that sort of stuff. It was kind of a refresh for me.”

Triolo’s play and performance made him popular in the Greensboro clubhouse, to the point that his teammates made t-shirts to wear of Thursdays for Triolo, called “Tree Huggers Day.”

“This guy would come in every day and prepare like a champion, and he knows what he needs,” Greensboro manager Kieran Mattison said Tuesday. “He knows what challenges him, and he put in the work.”

Triolo is going to stay with that group of “tree huggers” for a while, as most of the players who performed in Greensboro will make the jump to Class AA Altoona next season.

“The core of our team will probably play together all the way up. That’s really exciting,” Triolo said. “We’re just kind of a fun group of guys who like to go out and compete every day. It’s really easy to play alongside some of those guys. Just kind of takes some of the nerves away from everyday baseball.”

MORE AWARDS

• The Pirates announced four award winners Wednesday. Oneil Cruz was named the Willie Stargell Slugger of the Year after the 23-year-old shortstop slugged .594 with 17 home runs over 302 plate appearances across Altoona and Class AAA Indianapolis before being promoted to the majors for the final weekend of the season. The No. 19 overall prospect, according to Baseball America, homered and lined a 118 mph single – the hardest hit by a Pirate in the Statcast era – in that brief cameo.

“This is going to be just one of the many awards he’s going to achieve,” prospect Lolo Sanchez said over Zoom through translator Mike Gonzalez.

• Sanchez was named the Omar Moreno Baserunner of the Year after stealing 30 bases on 39 attempts for Greesnboro. Omitting the cancelled 2020 minor-league season, Sanchez has swiped at least 30 bags in each of the past three seasons.

“When I started my professional career, that's always been my mindset,” Sanchez. “My mindset's always been, every season, to have 30-plus stolen bases. Thank God I've been able to achieve that in the past three seasons, and it's a mindset that I have continuing forward.”

More on Sanchez to come.

• The final award of the day went to Greensboro right-hander Enmauel Mejia, who was named the organization’s Kent Tekulve Reliever of the Year. Between Class Low A Bradenton and Greensboro, Mejia pitched to a 0.42 ERA with 53 strikeouts over 42 2/3 innings. In Bradenton, the only four runs he allowed over 21 appearances were unearned.

“Every time he went out there, it was light's out,” his Bradenton teammate Logan Hofmann said Tuesday. “Obviously he didn't let up a [earned] run with us, and you know every time he was on the mound, we're probably going to win the game, or he's going to give us a chance to keep us in the game if he goes a couple innings. It was really fun to see him, and he had that attitude of he wants the ball, which is great to see. You want to be put in tough situations and that's what he did.”


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