Perrotto: Pirates, Like Other MLB Teams, Will Hold Breath During WBC (+)
The World Baseball Classic presents a bit of a dilemma.
On the one hand, the WBC is a good global marketing tool for Major League Baseball as it has 20 different national teams vying for a title. The event has proven to be popular with fans, especially in countries besides the United States.
However, the WBC also disrupts spring training for all 30 MLB clubs. Each of them will have at least some players away from camp for at least two weeks.
This version of the WBC, the first since 2017 because of the pandemic, begins Monday and will conclude March 21 in Miami.
Six players in the Pirates’ major-league camp will participate — closer David Bednar for the United States, right-hander Roansy Contreras and left-handed reliever Jarlin Garcia for the Dominican Republic, righty reliever Duane Underwood Jr. for Puerto Rico, outfielder Chavez Young for Great Britain and lefty reliever Rob Zastryzny for Canada.
The Pirates did not want to discourage any of their players from participating in the WBC. However, they know that the WBC games will be played at a higher level than those in the Grapefruit or Cactus leagues and hope the players don’t overexert themselves.
“It’s something that we’re mindful of and we’ve talked to all of them about, because the intensity is definitely going to be different when you’re playing for your country in a WBC game than it is a spring training game on March 9,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We’re going be cheering for all of them because being able to play for your country and represent your country and the way the WBC has displayed itself over the past couple of times, it’s fun to watch. Guys are getting after it.”
With pitchers making up the majority of the Pirates’ contingent in the WBC, Shelton believes communication between pitching coach Oscar Marin and the pitching coaches of the national teams will be key.
“In terms of what our usage is, what our usage thoughts are, what they plan on, it’s all going to be important,” Shelton said. “But it’s going to be really fun to watch our guys, and we have some guys who are going to compete against each other.”
Though they won’t say so publicly, the player the Pirates have the most concern about in the WBC is right-hander Roansy Contreras.
The organization closely monitored Contreras’ innings as a rookie last season. They even sent him to Triple-A Indianapolis for a five-week span from July 8-Aug. 16 explicitly to control how much he pitched.
Contreras threw a combined 129.1 innings between the major leagues and minor leagues.
In 18 starts with the Pirates, Contreras never worked more than seven innings. Just four of his starts lasted six innings. Contreras’ highest pitch count was 98.
“I think one of the reasons we did what we did last year was we knew we had to build him to be able to sustain over a full season, and that was really important for us,” Shelton said.
Contreras is still just 23 years old, so the Pirates won’t remove all the governors surrounding his usage this season. It is safe to assume he will exceed last year’s innings total, but the Pirates don’t have a set number in mind.
“With all our pitchers, we look at the whole arc of time, go back as far back as we can to the minor leagues, look at the volume over time and how that’s evolved, and it is a factor coming into the season,” general manager Ben Cherington said. “We prefer not to set specific innings limits going into the year, because it feels a bit arbitrary.
“There are so many other variables involved. We want to see how guys recover when they get into the season. We’ve got a good team of people that work with our guys, keeping in touch with how guys are recovering. We had examples last year of pitchers who because of the work they were doing between starts, pitch more innings. And it is an individual, case-by-case thing.”
Contreras has a 5-5 record and a 3.67 ERA during his short time in the major leagues. The Pirates believe he is capable of much more, which is why they will continue to exercise caution.
“He’s got a chance to be a really good starting pitcher in the big leagues and an important part of our staff,” Cherington said. “We want to be mindful of that. But he’s doing the things that he needs to do to give himself a chance to pitch a lot. And if he continues to do that, we don’t want to put any sort of artificial harness on it. It’s really just about working with him (daily) and making sure he’s in a position to pitch safely.
“In some cases, as we’ve seen in the past, we’ll pick a spot. That’s just part of the way you’d rather do that as part of the recovery than get into shutdowns and things like that. So that’s generally our approach, but it is case by case.”
Of all the Pirates’ young starting pitchers, Contreras has the best chance of developing into the ace of the staff. He is that good.
So, they can’t help but hold their breath while Contreras is out of their control.