Perrotto: Jason Delay Glad He Delayed Any Retirement Decision (+)
PITTSBURGH – Jason Delay seemed on his way out of professional baseball at this time last year.
Delay was the third-string catcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Triple-A Indianapolis farm club. His role had been reduced to basically warming up pitchers in the bullpen.
Today, at least for the moment, Delay is the Pirates’ primary catcher as Austin Hedges is on the seven-day concussion injured list.
It may not be long before Delay is back to be the No. 2 catcher. Hedges has been taking batting practice and said after Saturday night’s 11-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox at PNC Park that he is feeling much better.
Delay will return to backup role without complaint when Hedges is activated, which could come as soon as Monday night when the Pirates open a three-game home series against the Houston Astros.
“I’m glad I stuck with it because it’s been a crazy 12 months for me,” Delay said. “I’m just really happy to be here and I’m not going to take it for granted.”
If Delay had decided to walk away at the start of last season, which is something he contemplated, he would have never been the beneficiary of a chain of events that got him to the major leagues.
Starting catcher Roberto Perez sustained a torn hamstring in May and was lost for the season.
The Pirates called up Delay for one day on June 14 to help get them through a doubleheader against the Cardinals in St. Louis. He went back to Indianapolis right after that but returned to the major leagues on July 7 as the Pirates churned through eight catchers in 2022.
Delay never went back to the minor leagues and wound up leading the Pirates in games caught with 57, including 49 starts. Delay hit just .213/.265/.271 with one home run in 57 games but impressed management with his ability to handle pitchers.
“That was huge,” Delay said of getting to the big leagues. “I learned so much last year.”
Nevertheless, Delay was a longshot to make the opening-day roster this season as he competed with fellow non-roster camp invitees Kevin Plawecki and Tyler Heineman in spring training.
Yet Delay wound up on the opening day roster and is thriving in the short sample size of five games, hitting .294 with one homer. He had a three-hit game Friday in the Pirates’ 13-9 victory over the White Sox in the home opener.
“To be honest, I just told myself all spring training that I’m the guy and that I belong there,” Delay said. “Confidence is such an important thing to have in baseball. I just had to kind of tell myself I belonged there and now here I am.”
The Pirates signed Hedges to a one-year, $5-million contract as a free agent in the offseason to stabilize their catching. Delay fully understands Hedges is going to play the bulk of the games when healthy.
Rather than be bummed about eventually going back to a bench role, Delay is looking on the bright side.
“I’m really excited to be behind someone who has a lot of experience in the big leagues and has been here for a while,” Delay said. “I’m really trying to learn as much as I can from him and see how he operates.”
It’s that optimism that got Delay through his career crisis at Indy last season and a big reason why he is a big leaguer today.