Ashcraft's journey 'starting to pay off' in impressive camp

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Sunday was not exactly Braxton Ashcraft’s day. He started his inning by surrendering a couple of ground-ball singles before a Termarr Johnson two-out error brought them home, meaning he had to take the loss in a 9-7 Pirates defeat to the Phillies at LECOM Park.

Consider that a road bump in what has been a very impressive spring, one where he has come to establish himself as one of the Pirates’ best young pitching prospects. MLB Pipeline has ranked him the No. 7 prospect in the system, and he’s justified that ranking early. He’s flashed great stuff and those two unearned runs have been the only blemishes in his fourth inning of work.

This past year has been a bit of a coming out party for the 2018 second-round pick. It’s not often a player makes their first Major League Spring Training in their seventh pro season, especially for the team that drafted them.

“The biggest thing is I’m healthy,” Ashcraft said. “That’s something I’ve never had.”

He’s not lying. In 2019, he dislocated his non-throwing shoulder. In 2020, he went under the knife again to repair his knee. The following year, it was Tommy John surgery, which would sideline him for all of 2022. HIs recovery kept him out of competitive action until last year. It was his sixth season as a professional, and he had only pitched in 26 games.

He spent plenty of time at Pirate City rehabbing over those years, where he got to work extensively with Minor League Pattern and Throwing Coordinator Vic Black, who helped him dive into how his body should be moving.

“You’ve got community here,” Ashcraft said. “You’ve got teammates, you’ve got coaches, you’ve got training staff. You’ve got everybody who’s working around one goal, which is to get everybody to the big leagues. Having that support, not only from the organization, but family and friends, I don’t think anybody can do this job without that.”

When he did get back on the mound, his fastball consistently registered in the upper-90s, his breaking ball spin ramped up to the 2,500 RPM range and he posted by far the best results of his young career. Over 52 ⅔ innings between Single-A Bradenton, High-A Greensboro and Double-A Altoona, Ashcraft recorded a 2.39 ERA and 63 strikeouts compared to just 11 walks. The Pirates were convinced and added him to the roster this winter to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft.

This spring has been his first extended period of time around the Major League staff, and the stuff has impressed. For manager Derek Shelton, though, his drive to get to this point is just as impressive.

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“He has the ability to keep his mindset moving forward,” Shelton said. “When you go through adversity or you’re not as highly touted as other people, it’s like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna go out and perform.’ I think we’ve seen that. We’ve seen the things that he’s shown in Major League camp in terms of what the velocity is, how he’s gone after people. I would think it would be more of a testament that he’s never let anything get him off the path of being a big league pitcher.”

For a while, Ashcraft’s Major League future didn’t look very bright. Now the question is if he will be a starter or a reliever. All 19 of outings in 2023 were starts, but they totaled only a few innings each time.

It was expected that his workload was going to be heavily monitored given what his previous few years had been like, but were those short outings a sign of things to come or just workload management? The decision hasn’t been made yet about which role they will proceed with moving forward.

“The fact that he can pitch multiple innings is very important for us,” Shelton said. “As we get later into camp or the [M]inor [L]eague season, we make a decision if he’s not on our club in terms of what the best role for him might be. But right now we’re treating him as a multi-inning guy in the Major Leagues.”

Ashcraft says he still has a starter mentality, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes to get to the Majors. After the journey he had, who can fault him for having that goal, especially when he is so close.

“It’s been a struggle, but I think all the work, all the grind to get here, it’s starting to pay off,” Ashcraft said.