TORONTO — You looked at Michael Pineda on Saturday morning at 11:07, occupying a one-man universe and bopping to the tunes on his headphones in front of his locker in the Rogers Centre visitors’ clubhouse, and you saw a picture of normalcy.
“Latin music,” the right-hander explained later. “It makes me relax.”
The Yankees can’t yet relax about their forgotten prospect. But for the first time since their Jan. 23, 2012, acquisition of the 25-year-old who shook the baseball industry, they can smile.
Pineda took the loss as his team fell, 4-0, to an en fuego R.A. Dickey and the Blue Jays. Yet Pineda could consider himself a winner regardless, as he showed off the same electric stuff he displayed in spring training, limiting Toronto to a run and five hits in six innings while striking out five and walking none.
“I’m so excited today,” he said.
“I think it could mean a lot to our team, and I’m sure it means a lot to him,” manager Joe Girardi said. “To be able to go out and do what he loves and compete at the highest level, I’m sure it means a lot. He’s put a lot of work in over the last two years. He’s put in entirely too much time in that Florida sunshine, and I’m sure he’s pleased with where he’s at.”
One turn through the starting rotation, their Opening Day guy CC Sabathia recorded the worst turn by far; Sabathia will start Sunday’s series finale against the Blue Jays. The performances by the other four — Hiroki Kuroda, Ivan Nova, Masahiro Tanaka and Pineda — provided a great deal of small-sample-sized optimism.
Pineda’s rise ranks as the least likely of all, as the Yankees dramatically diminished their expectations of him once he went surgery to repair an anterior labral tear in his right shoulder on May 1, 2012. Nothing personal, it’s just that serious shoulder surgery still represents a pitcher’s greatest challenge to overcome.
Let’s face it: Pineda’s reporting to 2012 spring training overweight, as well as his DUI arrest in August of that year, cast further doubts upon his future. He barely registered last year when he began pitching in minor league games.
The Yankees took a great deal of heat for the swap that sent Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi to Seattle for Pineda and minor league pitcher Jose Campos. They would have taken far more if Montero and Noesi hadn’t flopped equally on the other side of the deal; Seattle designated Noesi for assignment on Friday.
This trade reminds us, though, you can’t fully assess a deal until all of the involved properties play out their time.
Pineda let up some hard-hit balls early, and the Blue Jays grabbed a 1-0 lead in the second when former Met Josh Thole singled home Adam Lind from second base. He settled down after that. In his last four innings, he allowed just one hit (a Jonathan Diaz double), struck out three, induced five groundouts, a foul pop and two more pop outs (one to first base, one to left field). Former
Yankee Melky Cabrera, Montero’s Biogenesis pal, lined out to left fielder Alfonso Soriano in the fifth.
Of the 22 batters Pineda faced, he started 13 with strikes. His four-seam fastball averaged 94.4 mph, according to Brooks Baseball.
And his slider accounted for four of his five strikeouts.
“If you’re looking for 98 or 99 [mph], I can’t answer that,” said Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild, referring to the velocity
Pineda hit during his 2011 rookie season with Seattle. “You’re seeing some consistent power coming out of his arm. Plus he has a better breaking ball now and better changeup. And I think it looks like he locates better. And that’s a maturation process for any pitcher, whether you hurt your arm or not.”
“I cannot ask for anything else,” said Francisco Cervelli, who caught Pineda. “I’m so happy just to see him on the mound, back in the big leagues.”
Next up comes Pineda’s pinstriped Yankee Stadium debut Thursday against the Red Sox. You would think that would make him jittery. Based on the way he conducted himself Saturday, however, and based on what he has endured? Maybe not.
“I’m not nervous. I’m excited,” Pineda said. “I’m pitching in the major leagues.”