BRADENTON, Fla. – The first page of Dewey Robinson’s notebook is a list of pitcher names, organized by when they completed the intake process and started camp at Pirate City.
Turn the page of that black faux leather book that is just the right size to fit snugly into a pocket and you get to minor-league pitcher Bear Bellomy. At the top of the page is the tangible data. His stats from last year. Pitch and pitch usage. Velocity, vertical movement, horizontal movement, the tilt of the pitch.
“It’s the data that’s important to me,” Robinson told me on a bench by Pirate City’s batting cages.
Below that neatly-scripted chart is a note on the reliever’s slider and cutter. Coming into minor-league spring training, pitchers fill out goal sheets on what they are hoping to improve on in camp and during the season. When Robinson talks to Bellomy or watches a throw session, they will share a common touch point.
As the year progresses, that page will be filled with notes and observations from Robinson that they can refer to again.
“This thing is in my pocket all the time because I’m the new guy on the block,” Robinson said, with the slight rasp in his voice indicating that even if he’s new, he’s experienced. “I want to have these meaningful conversations, intelligent conversations with pitchers so that when I walk away, he’s like, ‘gosh, he cares about me and knows what I’m doing.’”
In a time where one end of the Pirates’ coaching spectrum is creating a huge video resource for pitchers and coaches to use, Robinson’s notebook filled with metrics and notes is a perfect metaphor for how one can blend the old and new school in baseball coaching.
Robinson joined the Pirates’ front office this winter after a 12 year stint with the Rays, mostly as their pitching coordinator and guru. There, he oversaw the team’s rise to becoming one of the best pitching teams in baseball. Over the last five years, Rays pitchers have posted a 3.75 ERA, the third-lowest in all of baseball, trailing only the Dodgers and Astros, who had much larger payrolls at their disposal.
“When you're talking about pitching, I think a lot about Tampa,” director of coaching and player development John Baker said. “Different deployment strategies, but also different developmental strategies.”
Robinson was part of all of those with the Rays, but the day-to-day workload was starting to become too much. Roster management, scheduling the day-to-day, organizing workouts and, of course, working with the players on a one-on-one basis is a lot to ask of one person.
The Rays hired another pitching coordinator in 2020 to take some work off his plate, but once Robinson’s contract expired at the end of the 2021 season, he told them he wanted to look for a new opportunity. The Rays respected his decision and they left on good terms.
After 35 years in pro baseball, on top of five in college, he wasn’t looking to retire – “I don’t golf. I don’t fish,” he said. “I’d just drive my wife crazy!” – but instead looking for something that better suited what he was looking to do: Work with pitchers.
It’s something he and the Rays organization obviously knew how to do well.
“Man,” Baker said, cracking a smile. “If only we got somebody who knew exactly what they were doing over there to help us out.”
Baker joked, but when Robinson was a free agent, more than a few teams called for just that reason. They saw the success the Rays had developing pitchers and thought bringing him on would be a quick fix.
“There were teams calling me, and you can tell they were just interested in getting information,” Robinson said. “ ‘What are you doing there? What are you doing there?’ I said, ‘I’m going to disappoint you with the answer, but this is the way I see it. I can hand you the playbook. It’s not about that. It’s about the people that are on the ground working.’ You need talent.”
That talent comes in the way of coaches, scouts, analysts, trainers, mental skills coaches and, of course, pitchers.
“For me, that’s the formula. It’s from the bottom up,” Robinson said. “All of the people working daily with these players, that’s the difference.”
One of the teams Robinson was interested in talking to was the Pirates. He knew Ben Cherington from their time in the American League East, pitching coordinator Josh Hopper when he was coaching in college and special assistant to player development Scott Elarton when he was a pitcher in the Astros’ system and Robinson was the coordinator. He was looking for “pillars” of an organization, and thought highly of that group.
After having dinner with Baker, Robinson bought into what the Pirates were doing.
“What he’s put in the place, how they got about things and the people here, it was a no-brainer for me,” Robinson said. “I couldn’t sign quick enough.
“I wanted to find a place where I’d fit and be productive and be happy. I couldn’t be happier"
Robinson confided that he didn’t know if this had gotten back to Baker yet, but in conversation, he refers to him as “the closer” because of that dinner. High praise coming from a pitching coach.
JOSH LAVALEE / PIRATES
Dewey Robinson works with a pitcher.
With the Pirates, Robinson will get an up close look at the system after decades of watching the lower levels from afar with the White Sox, Astros and Rays. What he saw from the outside wasn’t always flattering.
It’s no secret that two of the Rays’ prized pitchers of their 2020 pennant were Tyler Glasnow and Charlie Morton, two pitchers who did not live up to expectations with the Pirates but greatly improved once they found their way to Tampa. They weren’t the only prospects who failed to live up to expectations, and it’s why the Pirates revamped their player development after Cherington was hired.
“I always felt like, ‘gosh, they have talent,’ ” Robinson said. “You would see it at the lower levels because we would play them in rookie ball and A ball. Gosh, they can throw, they can run, they can do this. And then you think, years later, ‘what happened to those guys?’
“Now, it’s a whole different environment. These kids aren’t going to fall through the cracks.”
Robinson’s role is fluid, focusing on working with individual pitchers and pitching coaches. While he’ll bounce between all the affiliates, his focus is going to be at the major-league and Class AAA levels early on in the season to try to develop those relationships with the players who will be at PNC Park this year.
With the Pirates, he, Oscar Marin and the other pitching coaches and analysts will be tasked with trying to turn the staff’s 5.08 ERA from a year ago. Doing so will be vital for the team’s rebuild to be successful and yield a competitive team.
Robinson has been a part of many competitive teams, but never won the big one. When he was with the Astros, they were swept by his first team, the White Sox, in the 2005 World Series. The Rays have been one of the American League’s best teams for over a decade, but have yet to hoist a trophy.
Meanwhile, his brother, Jimmy, has four rings with the Red Sox as a scout area supervisor. A few years ago, he sent Dewey a photo of him smoking a cigar and four World Series rings on his hands. One of those rings was from when Cherington was the Red Sox general manager.
Robinson is still in the game not for the money, but because he loves it. But if he could leave in a couple years with a parting gift…
“I’ve got championship rings, but no World Series ring,” he said. “I’d like to go out with one.”
