BRADENTON, Fla. -- Blake Cederlind sauntered around the mound at LECOM Park on Tuesday afternoon, preparing to fire another 98 mph fastball to Phillies top prospect Alec Bohm. The 6-foot-4 right-hander paused for a moment, blonde hair blowing in the breeze blowing out toward the boardwalk.

Sitting above the field in the AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh booth, longtime catcher and current color commentator Michael McKenry couldn’t resist the comparison. It’s hard to avoid it, actually, considering the way Cederlind stormed into camp this spring.

“He’s like Baby Thor,” McKenry said on the telecast. “Kind of built like [Noah] Syndergaard. He’s got the blonde hair. I see a little Baby Thor there. He’s got the walk, the strut, everything you want to have. … What’s not to like?”

Cederlind showed everything the Pirates like about him while working a scoreless fifth inning in the Bucs’ 6-2 loss to the Phillies on Tuesday afternoon. The right-handed relief prospect ran his power sinker up to 98 mph, just a preview of what his high-octane arm can do, as he worked a perfect inning with two groundouts and one strikeout.

There were only two mistakes. Cederlind’s trusty cleats -- the only pair he’ll wear in games -- betrayed him as he slipped on the mound after one pitch, and he lost his grip on a cutter that Bohm ducked to avoid.

“I feel like I have a lot of weapons,” Cederlind said. “I just need to get the sweaty hand figured out over here.”

The Pirates, trying to create a more inclusive environment in their clubhouse, have embraced the 24-year-old reliever during his first big league camp. Pitchers donned blonde wigs to look like him. Manager Derek Shelton’s initial review of Cederlind was glowing. The club’s social media team took Shelton’s words -- blonde hair flowing, sinker going -- and ran with them.

So, where did this “Baby Thor” come from? Let’s start with the basics. The Pirates picked Cederlind in the fifth round of the 2016 Draft out of Merced College, where he pitched after Turlock (Calif.) High School -- the same school as Pirates utility man Kevin Kramer.

Cederlind struggled for most of his first three professional seasons in Pittsburgh’s system. He struck out plenty of hitters -- 123 of them in 125 innings -- but he also gave up 132 hits and 69 walks while posting a combined 6.19 ERA from 2016-18.

That put Cederlind at something of a crossroads heading into last spring. He was 23 years old and about to return to Class A Advanced Bradenton, where he’d finished the previous season with a 7.59 ERA and 2.11 WHIP in 17 appearances. His four-seam fastball velocity was elite, but opponents were crushing his heaters.

“Just throwing 97 mph beach balls, 100 mph beach balls,” Cederlind said. “It doesn’t work, no matter how hard you throw it.”

So last offseason, Cederlind decided he needed more movement on his fastball. He reported for Minor League Spring Training on Feb. 7, 2019, then he and the Pirates’ pitching coaches and coordinators went “right to the drawing board,” he said. Their work led him to the power sinker that’s drawn attention from all around the organization this spring.

The problem with Cederlind’s old four-seam fastball was that it didn’t spin well. By Cederlind’s estimation, it came with a well-below-average spin rate around 2,200 rpm. He knew something had to change.

“That data helped me figure out that that’s not my pitch,” Cederlind said. “I realized with a two-seam [fastball], that’s what you want to do. So now I’m dropping it in at like 1,750 [rpm] up to 2,100. … I was throwing the same velocity before with the four-seam, and I would just get whacked on it.”

To put those numbers into context, consider that veteran ground-ball machine Brett Anderson’s sinker averaged 1,799 rpm last season. And just for fun: Syndergaard’s sinker checked in at 2,106 rpm.

After about a month, Cederlind felt comfortable with his new pitch. Then he started shooting up the Pirates’ system. He dominated hitters in Bradenton. He put together a 1.77 ERA and 1.03 WHIP for Double-A Altoona while holding opponents to a .191/.288/.272 slash line in 31 appearances.

He paired triple-digit sinkers with four-seamers up in the zone and 92 mph cutters running in on hitters, baffling everyone he faced along the way. By the time last year was over, he had reached Triple-A, pitched in the prestigious Arizona Fall League and had been added to the Pirates’ 40-man roster.

Cederlind almost certainly won’t break camp in the Pirates bullpen, but he could be a realistic option at some point later this season for a club that has struggled mightily to develop Major League-ready relievers in recent years.

“I found something I really like,” Cederlind said. “I’m excited going forward.”