BRADENTON, Fla. -- Pirates right-hander Jordan Lyles was in the Major Leagues at 20 years old. The Astros believed a star was about to be born. Seems like only yesterday, right?
“Night and day from where I was back then to where I am now -- physically, but more important, mentally,” Lyles said Saturday. “I’ve got a lot more knowledge, a lot more experience.”
At 28, Lyles has been through enough that an ugly spring game is unlikely to rattle him. On Saturday afternoon, he allowed three earned runs on seven hits and two walks in three innings against the Yankees, and those numbers don’t begin to tell the story of how it played out.
There were a couple of defensive hiccups behind him in a game the Pirates eventually won, 8-7. There were some balls hit hard and some that found a hole. All in all, it was one of those days when the work was important, if not pretty.
“I think it’s really good for pitchers to go through those types of things, especially here in Spring Training,” he said. “It’s going to make other outings seem a little bit easier. It helps you when those things occur during the season.”
Eight years after his Major League debut at Wrigley Field, Lyles is playing for his fifth big league organization -- and he has seen the game from almost every angle, from top prospect to being released, waived and all that jazz.
He’s a reminder that prospects -- even the best and brightest prospects -- do not come with guarantees or timetables. And yet, this story may have a happy ending.
Lyles signed a one-year, $2 million free-agent contract with the Pirates during the offseason, and he is the leading candidate to be the fifth starter on a rotation that could be very good.
Last season, with the Padres and Brewers, he may have figured things out. Not long after the Brewers claimed Lyles on waivers last August, he approached Milwaukee’s analytics staff.
“Hey, what do you have for me?”
Glad you asked, buddy.
“He figured out his best pitches, how to use them,” Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said. “The elevated fastball, the curveball off of that. He still has the other weapons he can use as situational pitches.”
Down the stretch last season, he was virtually unhittable and played a small role in helping the Brewers win the National League Central. In his last eight relief appearances, he didn’t allow a run in 10 1/3 innings.
“This is my first offseason where I had that built-in confidence, not just self confidence,” he said. “Results showed the direction I was going, and I had a really good offseason knowing that was the pitcher I could be.”
Thanks to data from the Brewers, he remapped his pitch usage, throwing more curveballs and changeups, fewer sliders and fastballs. His 28.7-percent curveball usage was by far the highest percentage of his career. He threw twice the number of changeups and fewer sliders.
Funny thing about the fastball. He threw fewer of them, but the 94-mph average velocity was the highest of his career. His 10.3-percent swinging-strike rate was the best of his career. So was a 22.6-percent strikeout rate.
“Here he is, late in his 20s -- feels like he has been around forever -- and he has figured out what his strengths are and is playing to his strengths,” Huntington said. “We’re excited to see where that takes him.”
What the Pirates do not know is if success in one- and two-inning stretches will translate into success for five and six innings.
“Well, obviously, everyone knows the numbers spike up as you go through a lineup multiple times,” he said.
His solution is to simplify things. Don’t even think about pitching five, six or seven innings. Get through one at a time.
“When I came up with the Astros, the idea was you’re going out there with the idea of going seven,” he said. “That’s just not the way you approach it now.”