JUPITER, Fla. – Last September when the Marlins announced that they would be calling pitches from the dugout, the baseball world didn't hold back its questions.
What would be the process? Was it micromanaging? Would it actually work?
Another question wouldn’t be answered until the offseason: Would it affect the organization’s ability to sign both Major League and Minor League free agents?
Including this week, the Marlins inked three pitchers on MLB deals: relievers Pete Fairbanks and John King, as well as starter Chris Paddack. Combined, they have 20 seasons of MLB experience.
“We've been up front with everybody that we considered bringing into the organization that this is an organizational initiative that we're not going to compromise,” president of baseball operations Peter Bendix said. “It's not going to be everybody except for this one guy. It's something that we truly believe is going to help us win more baseball games. It's going to help our pitchers get better results. We think it's something that can be a real, meaningful advantage for us. I've learned, and I've been around enough, that communication is key, and guys don't have to agree or disagree, but they appreciate and understand the upfront, transparent communication.
“I think [manager] Clayton [McCullough] is fantastic at that. I think our whole group is really good at that, and that's what we try to do. We just tell them, ‘Hey, this is what it's going to be. This is what it is. If you have questions, great. If you want to talk about it, great.’ But we don't want anybody blindsided or surprised.”
Paddack remembers hopping on a Zoom with the Marlins and being given the spiel. A seven-year veteran, he was understandably skeptical.
“At first, I didn't really know how I was going to feel about that, but they presented to me the why, the reason behind it,” said Paddack, who was reassured he could shake off pitches. “We go through a lot of mixed emotions as a pitcher ... so being able to take a little bit of that stress off our plate and trust the catchers and the coaching staff and everybody that's on the computer that is doing the scouting stuff -- whatever it might be -- I feel like that's going to be a huge impact for me.
“Sometimes we overthink out there. Sometimes we give the hitters too much credit. This game is very hard, and sometimes we overcomplicate things. … I think it's just going to help me just go out there and pitch, go out there and compete, whatever pitch is called.”
Fairbanks, one of the premier bullpen arms on the market, was exposed to innovation during his seven seasons with the Rays, five of which overlapped with Bendix.
Like Paddack, Fairbanks had questions, but his primary concern differed. With the bases empty, his 19.1-second pitch tempo tied for the third-slowest among qualifying Major Leaguers.
“Somebody's got to call the pitches, right?" Fairbanks said. "My biggest thing is, I use a lot of the pitch clock, so they were able to answer that it didn't seem like there was an excess number of violations or anything. Somebody's got to call the pitches, whether it comes from the dugout or the catcher."
Alon Leichman called pitches over that nine-game stretch as the assistant pitching coach, but he took over as Colorado's pitching coach this offseason. Replacing him is national champion Triple-A Jacksonville's pitching coach Rob Marcello Jr., who spent all of last season pitch-calling there.
On Saturday, King completed his first "pitch design session," which is simply a bullpen session to work on pitch shapes, or whatever else, while batters stand in. PitchCom will be introduced in the coming days when live batting practice starts.
"I'm really cool with it, because I know that they have so much data, and they do their homework so much, probably even more than we do," King said. "I think it's important for the pitcher to do his homework where, if you see something, or you feel something, you have the ability to shake. But also, they're trying to put you in the best situation possible, and I'm totally for that."
Time will tell how impactful pitch-calling from the dugout will be. The Marlins acquired a small sample over the final nine games of the season, beginning on Sept. 19 in Arlington against the Rangers. In five of those contests, the club allowed three or fewer runs.
How much data will it take to decide whether it’s effective?
“It's tough to say,” McCullough said. “If we have a team ERA or a team FIP of ‘this,’ does that mean it worked? Or if we don't, does it mean it doesn't work? I believe that this over time is going to help us as a group prevent [more] runs. It's going to help individuals perform better. And knowing that, during the season, we're going to give up 10 runs in a game, and guys are going to give up home runs, and that's part of it. Blips of difficult stretches aren't going to deter us from something that we believe, long term, is going to pay real dividends.”