Priester displays progress in first outing since stint in Minors

PITTSBURGH -- Endy Rodríguez knows how Quinn Priester looks when the right-hander is at his best. They’ve been batterymates in Double-A, Triple-A and the Majors. In Rodríguez’s estimation, Priester is finding himself.

“It’s coming back,” Rodríguez said. “He’s got everything now. He’s the Quinn everybody knows. He had one bad inning, but he’s got everything.”

Priester’s one bad inning, as Rodríguez mentioned, resulted in a pedestrian outing: four innings of relief as the bulk guy, four earned runs, four strikeouts, two home runs. But in his first outing back from Triple-A Indianapolis, Priester exhibited the best stuff of his brief Major League career as the Pirates narrowly beat the Nationals, 7-6, on Wednesday night at PNC Park. If Priester is to carve out a lengthy career, it will be the result of his pitches looking as they did Wednesday night.

“The results aren’t indicative of how I feel about [the outing],” Priester said. “I think there’s so much more to build on there than there was before. I’m really excited to keep working and the results are going to come.”

The chief cause for excitement was Priester’s velocity. Against the Nationals, Priester’s average sinker and four-seam fastball clocked in at 95.2 mph and 94.5 mph, respectively. Priester topped out at 96.7 mph with a sinker, the hardest pitch he’s thrown in his young career.

During his first stint with the Pirates, by contrast, Priester’s average sinker was 93.8 mph, while his average four-seamer was 92.9 mph. That jump isn’t insignificant. To provide more context, Priester threw 272 fastballs -- 171 sinkers and 101 four-seamers -- in his first six Major League outings. Of those 272 fastballs, only five touched at least 95 mph, and only one touched 96 mph.

Priester’s velocity drop this season was odd given he sat in the mid-90s with his fastball as he rose through the Minors with an ability to touch the upper-90s. On Thursday, Priester credited his uptick in velocity to a willingness to “just [screw] it and stop thinking so much.” General manager Ben Cherington said he’s been encouraged by Priester’s development as well.

“We saw some good things from him in Indy after he went down,” Cherington said. “Some good signal on both some pitch design stuff and a little more velocity, things he was trying to do in his delivery. There was no guarantee he was coming back, but it was a desired outcome that he would do things to kind of force his way back. We felt like he did, so that’s exciting.”

Priester, for the most part, cruised through his first four innings of relief work, his lone mistake being a solo home run to Drew Millas. In Priester’s fifth inning, his outing went south. Preister began leaning more on his breaking stuff, and the Nationals took advantage.

CJ Abrams drew a leadoff walk. Lane Thomas pulled a hanging slider down the left-field line to drive in Abrams. Dominic Smith sent a hanging curveball into the right-field bleachers. After Joey Meneses extended his arm and singled, manager Derek Shelton went to the bullpen and Priester’s night was over.

“We got away from throwing heaters later in the game,” Priester said. “They were able to start seeing the breaking stuff better. I think we stay on the heater and keep trusting it and throwing breaking balls off it.”

Priester didn’t look the part of a top pitching prospect upon earning his first callup in mid-July. In six starts, Priester allowed 29 earned runs across 28 2/3 innings (9.10 ERA). In addition to the aforementioned lack of velocity, Priester walked 18 batters (5.65 BB/9) and allowed seven home runs (2.20 HR/9).

The results aren’t yet there for Priester, but Wednesday’s outing marks progress. With 16 games remaining in the regular season, Priester is in line to make roughly three more appearances before season’s end, should he remain with the team. Priester can begin building a case for next year’s rotation over the next couple weeks, but for now, he’s content to remain present.

“I want to just keep doing the best I can,” Priester said. “I know that when we get to Spring Training next year, we’re going to reassess, we’re going to see what the team looks like and we’re going to have to fight for a spot there. Just because I have success or don’t have success this year, I don’t think that positions me either way next year. So, you have to come to spring and be ready. We have to finish this year first.”