Chase De Jong on comeback: 'Not done yet'

A little more than a year ago, Chase De Jong considered leaving baseball. But with Spring Training nearing completion, he’s making a case for a Major League roster spot with the Pirates.

De Jong pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing only one hit, in the Pirates’ 1-0 win over the Twins on Tuesday. It extends a stretch of great pitching by the 27-year-old, who has allowed only one run in 11 2/3 innings this spring.

The right-hander was released by the Twins in 2019, then decided to try to revive his career in independent ball with the Sugar Land Skeeters. However, De Jong came out of that stint with a 5.56 ERA in 12 games, and no teams were lining up to give him another shot in the Majors.

“We all prayed about it and decided, 'No, we’re not done yet,'” De Jong said. “Never looked at Plan B. This has always been Plan A.”

De Jong is candid about his struggles during the turn from 2019 to ‘20: “I wasn’t hurt. I was just a bad pitcher.” But he came back to Sugar Land the next season, cleaned up his command and racked up 27 strikeouts in 17 innings while recording a 3.18 ERA, thanks in part to increased velocity.

“Called my agent after the first couple of outings and said, ‘Hey, I throw hard now,’” De Jong said. “And he was like, ‘You do?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ I sent him the Trackman numbers, and my next outing, there were four scouts there.”

One of the teams was the Astros, who signed him soon after. De Jong didn’t impress immediately -- he allowed 12 runs in 7 1/3 innings with Houston -- but the team put him on the American League Championship Series roster, and he could feel the confidence trickling back.

Now, he’s arrived with the Pirates on a Minor League deal, a team skippered by Derek Shelton, his bench coach in Minnesota. Shelton thinks De Jong looks like a much stronger pitcher, led by better command and life on his four-seamer, which he’s locating well up in the zone.

“To see the adjustments he’s made -- not only before coming here but once getting here -- it’s been really good,” Shelton said.

Crick feels back to normal
Reliever Kyle Crick missed a lot of the shortened season last year as he dealt with right shoulder and lat strains. While his velocity was somewhat down when he did pitch, he was able to produce a 1.59 ERA in seven games.

This spring, Crick has been just as good with his results, with one run allowed in 6 2/3 innings with 10 strikeouts.

“It’s Spring Training,” Crick said, “but if you’re getting people to swing and stuff, and you’re getting them out the way you’re going to be getting them out in the season, then you’re practicing good habits. So that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Crick said that one of the biggest ways he can tell he’s feeling more like himself is that he’s feeling stronger in his “rip down,” or the quick motion of his fingers and wrist as he releases the ball, which is a key part of his velocity.

“It’s refreshing,” he said. “Last year, when I was ripping on the ball, I could feel it wasn’t as strong as it could have been. And this year, that’s not so much the case.”

Worth noting
• Roansy Contreras, the Pirates’ No. 20 prospect, got the save to secure a shutout of the Twins. After a leadoff walk, he struck out the next three batters, reaching 98.2 mph with his four-seam fastball -- the hardest pitch of the day by either team. Contreras ended his outing with a sharp high-zone curveball to strike out Aaron Sabato.

“For a kid that pitched in A ball last year, that was kind of cool to see,” Shelton said. “Went back to the breaking ball, was able to execute the fastball down and away. That’s exciting. Like we’ve talked about before, for Pirates fans to see a kid like this come in, a kid we acquired, it was cool.”

• Shelton got some payback for a videoboard prank played by Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, his former coaching mate in Minnesota, earlier this spring, when the club played a video of Shelton getting into an argument during a game on July 26 vs. the Cardinals last season.

With the Twins visiting LECOM Park, the videoboard showed a picture of Baldelli from his playing days with the caption “2-Time MLB Most Handsome Manager Award Winner.” Shelton claims he doesn’t know who created the graphic, but he thought it was nice.

“When you win an award like that, people like to honor you,” he said. “I think the people here at LECOM wanted to make sure we honored Rocco Baldelli. It’s nice to see. “

• The Pirates reassigned pitcher James Marvel to Minor League camp. The active Spring Training roster is now at 47 players.

Up next
Right-hander JT Brubaker will start a 1:05 p.m. ET contest for the Pirates vs. the Braves at LECOM Park on Wednesday. Clay Holmes, Chasen Shreve, Nick Mears and Braeden Ogle are expected to follow him in the pitching order, and Ian Anderson will start for Atlanta. The game will be broadcast live on AT&T Sportsnet and MLB.TV.