Ray Searage may have done it again.
The Pittsburgh Pirates pitching coach notorious for turning struggling castaway pitchers into solid and at times outstanding contributors appears to have pulled another rabbit out of his hat.
This time, the rabbit’s name is J.A. Happ.
Happ has only pitched in four games for the Pirates, but aside from his poor first outing he has been exactly what the doctor ordered for a Pirate rotation that looked to be falling apart a few weeks ago. He has limited his walks, has had some decent strikeout numbers and most importantly the Pirates are 3-0 in his last three starts.
His August ERA is the better than any Pirate starter, and even better than other recently traded pitchers like Cole Hamels and Johnny Cueto. His FIP of 2.52 this month suggests this success is currently no accident.
And many of us doubted Happ work out for the Pirates. But we should have known better by now.
Yes, it has only been four games. Yes, he could revert back to the Happ that struggled to the tune of a 4.64 ERA and 4.11 FIP with the Seattle Mariners. Or he could be the next Searage reclamation project.
It is too soon to say what the Pirates will get with Happ going forward, but Searage deserves the benefit of the doubt from Pirate fans that he can fix, or has already fixed, Happ.
Considering Searage’s track record with the Pirates, how could not have earned that by now?
He transformed A.J. Burnett from a guy that the New York Yankees paid the Pirates to take in 2012 to an all-star and Francisco Liriano from a struggling former top prospect into a quality top of the rotation starter. Mark Melancon was the centerpiece of the return of the unpopular trade that sent Joel Hanrahan to the Boston Red Sox after the 2012 season and is now one of the game’s best closers. And lest we forget what Searage did for Edinson Volquez.
Volquez was one of baseball’s worst starting pitchers from 2011-2013, and him receiving $5 million from the Pirates after the 2013 off-season was not received kindly, to say the least. In fact, a Pirate signing likely did not generate that type negativity since the days of them signing Jeromy Burnitz and Raul Mondesi in the early 2000s. Oh what dark times those were.
Yet Volquez won 13 games and posted a 3.04 ERA in 2014. Many of those that jeered at signing him were sad to see him depart.
Searage has also made a habit of squeezing every last quality pitch from journeymen relievers like Vin Mazzaro, Jeanmar Gomez and Chris Resop. Now it is Arquimedes Caminero and Joe Blanton that are getting the Searage-makeover in the bullpen.
And most of those bullpen arms were acquired for next to nothing. Searage may be better than anyone else in the Majors that can find the guy that slips through the cracks, then look like a coaching wizard when that pitcher becomes a positive asset.
He knows how to look past the stats and see a guy that is a few tweaks here and there mechanically away from success. No, Searage cannot turn every pitching pumpkin into a carriage the Pirates can ride to the playoffs, as everyone who watched Ernesto Frieri last year witnessed.
Sometimes the pitcher does not buy into the changes – that reportedly was the case with Jonathan Sanchez in 2013. Sometimes the pitcher simply cannot make the change needed. Or maybe sometimes Searage was just wrong – he is human after all.
But his system of buying low and getting good returns from his investments has worked; kudos to Neal Huntington and Clint Hurdle for trusting Searage. And we need to trust this system too.
The Pirates have not collectively pitched this well consistently in decades. The revolving door of pitching coaches from Jim Colburn to Joe Kerrigan yielded rotation after rotation of disappointing, if not at times embarrassing results. Highly regarded prospects like Zach Duke and Tom Gorzelanny did not live up to expectations.
Sure, Searage has had more talented prospects like Gerrit Cole to work with, but does anyone else not doubt that guys like Duke or Gorzelanny would have been better off with Searage?
It can be hard to be patient in sports. It is even harder when your team is in the thick of a playoff race. Trading for a struggling guy like Happ and hoping he can quickly turn things around is certainly like playing with fire – Happ did, however, get the benefit of 10 days off between starts to make adjustments.
But if there is one man on the Pirates that has earned our trust, it is Searage.
