Triolo looking to continue to grow on field, around diamond

Jared Triolo was waiting for a call that would change his career, but the only thing he was hearing was the smoke detector's low battery warning. He would know within the hour if the Pirates had selected his contract or not. Changing those batteries would keep him pre-occupied for a moment, at least.

"I think it was just the build up of waiting for the deadline and you hear the chirps going off in your house and you just about have enough of it," Triolo said over Zoom Friday afternoon. "It was time to put an end to that."

As he was changing them, he got the call. The Pirates had added him to the 40 man roster, putting him one step away from the majors.

Triolo was one of four prospects the Pirates added to the roster to protect them from next month's Rule 5 draft. He and the other three players -- catcher Endy Rodriguez, starter Mike Burrows and reliever Colin Selby -- all spent a good portion of the season at Class AA Altoona, giving Pirate fans a preview of what could come and the players of one of the most highly-touted teams in the minors.

"You can see how everybody goes about the struggles and goes about doing really well," Triolo said about playing with that group. "You take it all in and you bounce it off them and you talk to them all about it and you incorporate it into your own style of play. It's been good to play with guys like that."

Triolo established himself as one of the more promising prospects of that group in 2021 at Class High-A Greensboro, where he won a minor-league Gold Glove and recorded an .849 OPS. That didn't immediately translate to the start of this season and he got off to a slow start. While he was still drawing walks and finding a way to get on base, on June 19, he had a .317 slugging percentage.

At that time, he got in some extra work with minor-league hitting coordinator Jonny Tucker, when things started to click. While he didn't have the power numbers he did in 2021, he still finished with a .282/.376/.419 slash line over 495 trips to the plate.

"It’s kind of more of a feel thing for me," Triolo said. "They sat me down and pointed out some numbers, obviously showed me I wasn’t producing as well as I could be. Kind of gave me some things to think about and work on as far as pregame routines and that sort of stuff. It definitely helped, so it was good."

Factor in Triolo's defense -- and there was no drop off, as he was named the organization's Bill Mazeroski Defender of the Year -- and there are plenty of reasons why Triolo was added to the roster.

But there's one road block for Triolo in the majors: The Pirates already have one of the best defenders in the game at third base. That's Ke'Bryan Hayes' position.

This past year has been a year of defensive experimentation for Triolo. He received significant playing time at shortstop and center field during the regular season, and during the Get Better at Baseball Camp in Bradenton, Fla. last month, he moved to the right side of the infield at second base and first.

The transition to other positions went fairly smoothly, showing he could be a utilityman at the major-league level:

"I think it was my first outing, he made like two or three plays behind me and I'm like 'oof, that guy is the real deal,' " Curve reliever Tyler Samaniego said over Zoom recently. "It's definitely awesome not having to worry about anything when the ball comes off the bat."

"What makes me really good at third base is my pre-pitch routine," Triolo said about working at other positions. "Going over to second or first base, it was more getting comfortable with the timing of the pre-pitch routine and being able to get the good first step and good reads on balls. Working with those guys, we definitely got a lot done. Confidence is definitely really high over there."

His versatility is a plus and the Pirates are banking that he will be a viable option around the diamond, hence why they added him to the roster. That puts him just a call away from the majors, but it's not going to change how he approaches the games.

"It's definitely a confidence thing," Triolo said about being added to the roster. "Just goes to show you that they value you, the work that you're putting in, the things that you've been doing up until this point. For the most part, all of the work and habits and routines and stuff I've been doing. It's allowed me to be at this point I'm at now."