Hartlieb finally at 100 percent after surgery

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- When Geoff Hartlieb got married in November, walking down the aisle wasn’t easy. He was in a walking boot, using a cane, with only 5 percent of his body weight on his right foot as he pushed forward. During his reception and honeymoon, he wheeled around on a knee scooter.

“Not ideal, I would say that,” Hartlieb admitted recently. “But it was good in the end.”

After undergoing surgery in October to address an unusual injury to his right foot, Hartlieb has taken a similarly half-glass-full outlook on the rough beginning of his Major League career last season. The right-hander posted a 9.00 ERA and 2.00 WHIP in 35 innings over 29 appearances. He won’t pin those results on his injury, but he can find some solace in the fact that he’ll be back at full strength whenever he next takes the mound in Pittsburgh.

“I’m not looking at it as the reason last year went the way it did. I’m looking at it as a blessing that it’s taken care of now, and I know what it’s like to pitch not at 100 percent,” Hartlieb said. “Hopefully going forward, pitching at 100 percent, it gives me that much more confidence.”

The Pirates didn’t specify the nature of Hartlieb’s injury on Oct. 9, when they announced only that he had “surgery on his right foot.” Here’s the way Hartlieb describes it: He was born with an extra bone in his foot, just outside of the fifth metatarsal, and at some point last year, it caused a fracture on the inside of his foot.

Hartlieb doesn’t know how long he pitched with a broken foot, but he estimated it was before the halfway point of the season. One night last summer, he woke up in the middle of the night and took one solid step onto the cold, hard concrete floor when pain shot up through his foot.

“I just kind of jumped and stopped. It got me thinking about how I was using my foot,” Hartlieb said. “The next day, I tried thinking about the way I was walking, and it wasn’t right. I’d been doing it subconsciously, taking the weight off my foot for a while.

“It was bad. I didn’t realize how much I just changed everything I was doing. That’s the biggest thing. The way I was pitching was so that it didn’t hurt, but I didn’t realize I wasn’t using my foot at all. I was just falling and jumping forward. Looking at video now, it’s very easy for me to see that I wasn’t using my foot the way I need to.”

Hartlieb spent the first half of the offseason keeping weight off his foot, and he said he’s still working to become as “explosive” off the mound as he needs to be during the regular season. The 26-year-old reliever gave up a hit and two walks while striking out one over 1 1/3 innings against the Blue Jays on Friday at TD Ballpark.

“It’s one of those things that we have to continue to manage,” manager Derek Shelton said. “Anytime we have guys that are off surgeries, we continually have to manage their volume and how they’re going and keep progressing them forward.”

Over the last three seasons combined, only one homegrown Pirates reliever has even topped 48 appearances in a season: Edgar Santana, who took the mound 69 times in 2018. As they reshaped their 40-man roster this offseason, the Pirates displayed a clear preference for pitchers who possess high-end tools -- like Clay Holmes’ power sinker and Hartlieb’s upper-90s fastball -- with the hope that new pitching coach Oscar Marin will help unlock their potential.

Hartlieb has reason to believe he’s capable of more, too, under Shelton and Marin. Typically an emotional pitcher, Hartlieb felt he had to restrain himself on the mound as a rookie. He also may have been held back by the previous staff’s infatuation with the two-seam fastball, as opponents batted .451 with a .745 slugging percentage against his sinker, according to Statcast.

“Let’s pitch to our strengths -- not necessarily to contact, not necessarily the same way to every single hitter. Let’s figure out a plan that works to lefties really well, to righties really well -- and you might not throw a certain pitch at all to one side of the plate,” Hartlieb said. “Taking ownership of my arsenal and being confident enough to be who I am.

“It’s learning that process to get yourself ready every single day. I have all the confidence in the world that I can do it and I can get guys out when I need to. It’s just consistency. Consistency is key in this game.”