During a visit to the Chapman Baseball Compound in Irvine, Calif., Vince Velasquez had a question for his new pitching coach: "Man, what did you do with Q?"
"Q" is José Quintana, who at this time last year was getting one last shot to prove he was a starter after signing a one-year, $2 million deal with the Pirates. By tweaking his mechanics and reworking his changeup, Quintana had a spectacular bounceback campaign and parlayed it to a two-year, $26 million deal with the Mets this winter. The veteran lefty was so appreciative that during the final series of the season, the then-Cardinal sent pitching coach Oscar Marin a T-bottle of Don Julio tequila.
Quintana's success story in 2022, and Tyler Anderson's the year before that, was one of the main reasons Velasquez signed with the Pirates this offseason. Like Quintana and Anderson, Velasquez had lost his grip as a starter in recent years and fell into a swingman role. He still believes that he can start, and that Marin and the Pirates' pitching team can help him reach that dream.
"That’s definitely in the back of my mind," Velasquez said during his introduction last month, "realizing that I can definitely be one of those assets, one of the guys who come in, potentially be a leader but also take advantage of that opportunity that's being granted."
Velasquez was one of two offseason additions to shore up the Pirates' rotation, the other being veteran Rich Hill. It's a group that took a step forward last year, but not to the point that they need to be as a group. In 2021, Pirate starters had a combined 5.53 ERA and just one starter was worth at least 1 WAR: Anderson, who was traded at the deadline. In 2022, that ERA dropped to 4.61 and three starters had at least 1 WAR: Quintana, Mitch Keller and Roansy Contreras. There was improvement, but for this team to ever become competitive, they're going to need at least a similar leap forward in 2023.
There is hope that the group can improve again in 2023, and that is mostly because of the group of pitchers the Pirates have to pull from this year. For the first time in Marin's time as pitching coach, the Pirates are returning a starter pitcher who pitched at least 50 innings and had a sub-4 ERA (Keller and Contreras). Three pitchers who either very recently ranked as top 100 prospects or will soon rank as one are expected to make their leaps to the majors at some point this season: Luis Ortiz, Quinn Priester and Mike Burrows. The free agents they have brought in don't have to be front of the rotation arms, but rather complementary pitchers.
And they're coming off of a year that may not have yielded the results they want as a team, but had positive takeaways as a group.
“A lot of guys are starting to know what their identity is," Marin told me over the phone Tuesday. "We’ve introduced tech, we’ve introduced information to get guys to understand what their stuff does, how to use it, and I think we’ve done a good job simplifying that to the point that guys really started understanding who they are, and I think that’s really going to keep getting better rolling into this next season.”
For them to take that next step, though, a few things are going to have to happen.
COMING BACK AGAIN
At this time last year, Keller was lighting up social media with his viral bullpens at Tread Athletics. He had rediscovered his fastball velocity, and he looked like the former top prospect version of himself rather than the major-leaguer who had generally struggled.
The velocity was a start, but it wasn't enough. As Marin put it, the game was asking him to make a further adjustment. He did, adopting a sinker and a new sweeping slider. The sinker was the first to debut, sprinkling it a few times in May before giving it a proper debut in Dodger Stadium on May 31.
More experimentation was to come, but from the start of July through the end of the season, he recorded a 2.93 ERA over 16 starts. The next step is to prove that he can be that pitcher over the course of a whole season, something Marin "absolutely" believes can happen.
“We got to see what a more consistent Mitch Keller with that pitch was towards the end of the season," Marin said. "It’s why I truly feel coming into spring training, this man is going to know his identity and who he is. He’s not going to be refining anything so much this spring other than his gyro slider he’s been working on.”
“It’s go-time for Mitch," Marin continued. "He knows exactly what he’s doing. He knows exactly how to prepare. Very motivated to come into spring training to do the things that he did and more consistently from where he left off.”
Keller was a player people hoped for years could be a front of the rotation arm. Contreras is another. He lost some fastball velocity towards the end of last season, but Marin said that was because of his jump in workload in 2022. He'll have it back for next season.
Contreras showed flashes of brilliance last year. He also showed times where he was a rookie. Midseason, it was identified by the Pirates' coaching staff that he was tipping his pitches. They happened to catch it before other teams seemed to, so Contreras proceeded as normal. That was until he was chased in the second inning after allowing seven runs one day in Milwaukee. After that, he stopped tipping.
It's moments like that for players like Keller and Contreras that help them take the jump from being pitchers instead of just throwers.
"It’s understanding what’s working, what’s not working, or what to adjust over a season," Marin answered when asked what the difference is. "What hitters are telling you. You still have to be able to pitch."
This offseason does offer, for the first time in Marin's tenure, some normalcy for how to prepare for a year. There is no lockout to cut off contact between coaches or players like last year, and they aren't trying to navigate the fallout of the shortened COVID-19 like the year prior.
"Going into spring, everybody is going to be on the same page," JT Brubaker told me last month. "Same page of video, mechanical. Same page of, 'ok, this is my feeling of throwing this pitch.' Lingo, verbiage. Continue to work and develop in that aspect."
ANOTHER RECLAMATION WIN?
When looking at Velasquez, one has to look at not only Quintana, but also Keller.
After that slow start last year, Keller was briefly skipped in the rotation in favor of a pair of relief outings. His return to the rotation was that start against the Dodgers in May that essentially jump started the second half of his season.
“Was it a mentality thing?" Marin asked. "Was it an approach thing? Whatever it was, it led him to do [what he did] the rest of the year. That can happen sometimes.”
For Velasquez, it was more mental, and he spent that time in the White Sox bullpen last year preparing for a theoretical chance to start again.
"I think every day is a learning experience," Velasquez said. "I don't take anything for granted. I think it's more so trying to build the learning curve. Sometimes you have to reinvent the wheel a little bit, but there's nothing wrong with taking a couple steps back and taking 10 steps forward. I think that's one of the things that I've really matured [about] over the years, constantly going back and forth with different organizations. This is something I can really harness and take to my advantage and really apply it."
With Velasquez, Marin sees an above-average fastball and two breaking pitches that play, especially early. He has stuff. They're trying to translate it to game results with mechanical work. That includes getting a quicker arm stroke, shortening up his movements and being more efficient with his body.
Velasquez wanted to know what the Pirates did with Quintana. Well, he's seeing it first hand.
“We’re trying to simplify what he does great and try to do it more often," Marin said. "I know it’s like, ‘oh man, everyone tries to do that,’ but with this man here, that’s really going to take him over the hump.”
The other free agent pitcher the Pirates picked up will, ideally, have an impact on the rotation beyond 2023.
THE KIDS AND RICH
Hill was looking for an opportunity where he could be a veteran and teach "the art of pitching" to a younger team. Given his relationship with Ben Cherington from their Red Sox days, it became the right fit for them.
"There’s always been a guy that’s been older who’s consistent about their work habits or goes about their job the right way when they go out there to compete between the lines with a certain intensity and a certain focus that can’t be shaken," Hill said. "I think that’s something everybody needs to learn throughout their career at some point. You can say it but then you show it. The other side of it is going through it yourself and experiencing it. Experience, in my opinion, is the best teacher.”
So if you want someone who can teach people to pitch, not just throw, it's hard to think of a better example than someone with 18 years of major-league experience. Especially when two of those prospects, Priester and Burrows, have highly-touted curveballs, which is Hill's bread and butter pitch. Burrows has the elite spin rate. Priester's is the more traditional looking curve that scouts gravitate towards.
Hill can relate to both. He can spin it and get different movements, based on grip and finger pressure. He was signed to be a veteran for the whole staff, but there can be an added benefit for those two prospects when they come up.
“The benefit is the conversations that they’ll have," Marin said. "That’s something that is unexplained sometimes. A guy that manipulates the curveball in totally different ways… he’s going to be able to give that advice. Help them through a process or sticking to a process as opposed to trying to jump around too much at times. I think the value they’ll have is the conversations and the knowledge and the experience of someone like Rich. When you’re looking at those two young studs, they’re going to want to listen to what the almost 20-year veteran has to say and why he’s maintained so many years in baseball.”
If those two can debut like Ortiz did last year, it would go a long way. And that goes beyond how his triple digit fastball saw him elevate to the Pirates' top pitching prospect.
To Marin, it was Ortiz's confidence that struck him. One of his first major-league outings was in Yankee Stadium against one of the top offenses in the league. Ortiz didn't blink and challenged hitters.
“You’ve seen guys with stuff. Guys like that can throw electric, 100-mph this and that. But they may get spooked at times," Marin said. "This dude did not. It was more like, ‘I’m going to get ya.’ There’s nothing more exciting to see than somebody that has that confidence. That’s going out [to the mound] to get you out.”
Ortiz will get that next chance on a major-league mound at some point this season. The young pitchers know, and it can transform the rotation to one that could be a preview for the future.
“We know that all of us are going to get our opportunities at one point or another if we just stay the path, stay the course that we’re on," Burrows told me earlier this offseason.
And when they get those opportunities, the expectations are high.
"Rookie of the year has crossed my mind," Priester said last month. "I want to set big goals because you work harder for that. You realize that’s a pretty big goal. Can’t really slack if that’s what I really want to be. I just want to give myself every opportunity to be the best version of myself that I can be. I don’t know what that will be, but I’m going to work as hard as I can to achieve it. I don’t want to put a limit on that."
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The opening day rotation very likely won't look the same as the one at the end of the season. Even if the prospects' limited Class AAA experience keeps them out of the running for opening day spots, there are still six starter candidates once Johan Oviedo, who made a good impression in his September cameo, is factored in. Perhaps it can lead to a six-man rotation or some other type of arrangement early.
But unlike previous years, where there was little depth and the team was seemingly just an injury or two away from bullpen games are rolling the dice on other teams' castoffs like Bryse Wilson and Tyler Beede, they can go to someone who knows the system and has been building up to an opportunity like this.
That can be a sign of things to come.
"It's something to really think about, and internally, gives you more competition," Marin said. "You have those guys, and now you have guys coming and you're getting more depth. It's a good feeling. Let's just say that."
