Over a 34-day span, seven major league debuts transitioned Pittsburgh’s future into the present
By Anna Kayser
On June 13, Osvaldo Bido walked into Wrigley Field as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates taxi squad, a move made ahead of his impending major league debut the following night. Simultaneously, the Indianapolis Indians were preparing to run out their everyday, prospect-laden lineup behind starting pitcher Quinn Priester for a series-opening win at Iowa.
Thirty-four days later, eight players who had appeared in Indianapolis’ 7-4 victory that night had officially joined Bido in the big leagues – six to make their respective major league debuts – putting into practice a developmental strategy by the Pirates to raise their next generation of impact big leaguers through the organizational ranks.
“It’s definitely a wide range of emotions that range from pride, joy, happiness and then fear and anxiety,” John Baker, the Pirates director of coaching and player development, said. “We spend so much time as an organization trying to put these players in a position to be successful, but then it really gets tested when they go to Pittsburgh. When you build a system the way we built this system and you have coaches and staff build relationships with the players, I think that everybody really cares about these guys and how they do. It’s super exciting.”
After earning the first save of his career for Indianapolis on June 13 to extend an impressive streak of just one run allowed in 10.2 innings, Carmen Mlodzinski had his contract selected by Pittsburgh on June 16. As the 31st overall selection by the Pirates in the 2020 First-Year Player Draft, he was the first of three former first-round draft picks to make their MLB debuts for Pittsburgh over the next week.
The long-awaited debut of catcher-turned-right fielder Henry Davis – the fourth No. 1 overall draft pick to come through Indianapolis in franchise history – followed three days later. Starting at second base behind Priester was Nick Gonzales, taken No. 7 overall in ’20, who then had his contract selected on June 23.
“From the first pitch of your debut or the first time you get to the big leagues, whatever it may be, you know immediately that it’s a little bit different,” Gonzales said. “You know you’ve got to win and that’s what’s expected, it definitely changes your mentality a little bit and it’s a lot of fun.”
Locking down the hot corner was Jared Triolo, who finished a triple shy of the cycle on June 13 and then was recalled on June 28 when Ke’Bryan Hayes went on the injured list. The sure-handed third baseman who received back-to-back Bill Mazeroski Defender of the Year Awards – given to the best minor league defender in the Pirates organization – displayed hitting prowess in the majors, too, by becoming the first Pirate to log a 13-game hitting streak in his first 18 career MLB games.
As the moves began to pile up and the stack of Pirates jerseys with ‘MLB Debut’ patches on sleeves grew, the focus centered on the Young Bucs who had anchored Indianapolis’ June 13 lineup.
“It makes me feel proud of our guys and the way the organization has been doing things,” Miguel Perez, Indians manager said. “We’ve trusted these guys to go up there and compete and try to win games, and that’s cool for me to be able to watch games and see a lot of those guys that were at one point in our lineup here. Now to see them with the big-league team is really cool.”
At the same time, the clubhouse culture was also shifting. The rapid promotions of multiple farmhands who had risen through the system together gave the Young Bucs a feeling of familiarity and comfortability.
There was a plan in place on Friday, July 14 – the first day out of the All-Star break against the Omaha Storm Chasers – when Priester took to the Werner Park mound to continue his tear through International League opponents. In 12 outings since May 4 – seven of which were quality starts – the right-hander had been mostly untouchable, going 6-0 with a 3.36 ERA (25er/67.0ip) and 59 strikeouts. To end June, he fanned 11 batters over 6.0 shutout innings and tossed a career-high 7.1 innings in his final start before the All-Star break.
He was pulled after one. There was pushback from Priester, who wore a glancing liner off his leg for the final out and reasoned with Perez and athletic trainer Tyler Brooks to continue the outing, but he had a big-league start penciled in for the following Monday.
“That’s the coolest part of my job, to be able to tell someone that they’ve achieved their goals,” Perez said. “Whenever we sign up for professional baseball, that’s what we want – to play in the big leagues. I’ve been blessed to be in this position. Someone [told me I was going to the big leagues], now I’m the one telling someone that they made it. It’s the best, it’s the coolest part of my job.”
In a video captured of that moment, as Priester puts his head down and gets up to hug Perez and his teammates, catcher Endy Rodríguez – who on July 14 launched his first career grand slam and joined Miguel Andújar as the first Indians teammates with five RBI in the same game since Paul Konerko and Roberto Petagine accomplished the feat in 1998 – can be seen in the background cheering on his batterymate.
Less than 48 hours later in the Werner Park visiting clubhouse, Rodríguez was informed of his own promotion to the big leagues. The two made history together as the first Pirates starting battery to debut together since 1943 and the first starting pitcher-catcher duo in MLB history to both be born in the year 2000 or later.
“It was cool because we have that body of work together since starting last year and working a ton in Indy this year,” Priester said. “Just being able to do that in the big leagues and understanding each other and what [each of us] is good at, we really just work together as a team.”
On July 17, when Priester and Rodríguez took to the PNC Park field together for the first time, the Pirates’ defense closely mirrored that of Indy’s just 34 days before. The battery was joined by Davis in right field, Gonzales at second, Triolo at third and the addition of Liover Peguero – who had been promoted that day after just seven Triple-A games – at shortstop.
“It was really, really nice,” Priester said. “Having Triolo and Nick, it was really cool to have all those guys behind me and just knowing that I’ve been there before with those exact guys. It’s the same game, same players, so I just have to do what I can do. It was really fun.”
Rodríguez launched his first major league home run on July 22 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif. Priester earned his first of two consecutive major league wins on July 24 at San Diego. In 33 games with the Buccos, Triolo owns a .271 batting average (32-for-118) and launched his first homer as a pinch hitter on Aug. 13 (1) vs. Cincinnati to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 4-2 Pirates win. And don’t overlook the July 25 promotion and MLB debut of shortstop Alika Williams, a prospect who asserted himself with strong glovework and a steady bat for Indy after being acquired via trade on June 2 from Tampa Bay. The Young Bucs just keep on coming.
At the beginning of August, Pittsburgh split back-to-back four-game series with the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers and MLB-leading Atlanta Braves, both of whom could contend for a World Series title in October. The Young Bucs showed grit after a lopsided 14-1 defeat started the eight-game stretch, earning four wins and dropping the other three contests by a combined four runs. They could have mailed it in against tough competition but instead went to battle against baseball’s best.
“Now what we get, as we continue their development, is real concrete feedback on how they perform against the best guys in the world,” Baker said. “I think that’s going to be key for us moving forward, we will only be as successful as our ability to continue the development of these players at the major league level.”
It took only 34 days for the Pirates mantra to shift from the future is coming to the future is now.
Now, the future is here to stay.
“These guys are really, really good players,” Priester said. “As long as we keep working hard, we get a little bit better every day. There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re big-league baseball players and for it to be happening this year… it’s really exciting to think about how good we can get over these next couple of years.”
Originally posted on milb.com