BRADENTON
The Pittsburgh Pirates played another Grapefruit League home-opener at McKechnie Field on Wednesday.
And standing on the mound to start the sun-splashed afternoon was Gerrit Cole, who struck out three Toronto Blue Jays in two innings during a 4-1 Pirates’ loss in front of a crowd of 6,127.
Pirates pitcher Gerrit Cole delivers a pitch during Pittsburgh’s game Wednesday against the Toronto Blue Jays at McKechnie Field in Bradenton. Limited to 22 starts last season because of injury, Cole still won 11 games while striking out 138 in 138 innings, and went 4-1 in September to help the Pirates clinch a playoff berth. Staff photo / Thomas Bender
It wasn’t long ago that Cole was at McKechnie as a member of the high Single-A Bradenton Marauders, trying to make good on all the promise that goes with being a first-round draft pick.
That was then, however.
Cole is now one of the anchors of the Pirates rotation, a guy with 41 big-league starts under his belt who now knows spring training is all about preparation rather than good impressions.
“I just keep trying to get better,” he said Wednesday. “I remember the Marauders days, I remember coming in, and I feel like it wasn’t long ago.”
Cole’s first full season as a pro began in Bradenton, where he posted a 2.55 ERA in 13 starts for the Marauders in 2012 before finishing the season in Triple-A Indianapolis.
A year later, manager Clint Hurdle tabbed Cole to start the fifth and final game of the National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Cole’s days of reporting to spring training hoping to just make the team were gone — he was now a bona fide major-leaguer.
“You use spring training a little differently,” he said. “You use spring training not necessarily trying to impress everybody, but you’re trying to just get your work in, get your quality work in. The focus is on staying healthy and preparing rather than impressing. . . . I know a lot of the faces, I know the rotation . . . all that’s stuff very familiar to me.”
Though injuries limited him to 22 starts last season, Cole still won 11 games while striking out 138 in 138 innings, and went 4-1 in September to help the Pirates clinch their second consecutive playoff berth.
“It’s real easy to get in the routine,” he said. “It’s fun.”
He hopes to rely more on his slider and curveball and used both Wednesday, allowing a run on a hit, a walk and a hit batsman in two innings against Toronto.
“They’re starting to have different shapes, they’re starting to be more defined,” he said. “It’s just going to depend on the hitter and the situation, which one we call for. But I’m hoping to have both weapons.”
Hurdle agreed.
“He knows each one of them has a purpose and is a different pitch, so we can put both of them in play,” he said. “There might be a day where the slider doesn’t show up and the curveball does, or the . . . I think he’s just working on developing both so he can always have one of them in his pocket to go with the change-up, to go with the two-seam fastball and to go with the four-seam fastball.”
It’s all part of the learning process for Cole, one that began a few years ago on the same Bradenton mound he worked off Wednesday.
“I remember some of my first pro ball experiences, and I like to carry those with me,” he said. NOTEStart“It helps you stay grounded and it keeps you tied to the things that really matter.”