SURPRISE, AZ – The Pirates sent Alex McRae to the Arizona Fall League this off-season, which was a bit of a surprise. McRae finished the regular season with 155.1 innings, which was an increase of 18 innings over his 2015 totals, and a high total in general for a player in his second full professional season. To counter this, they made him a reliever, allowing him extra work, but limiting the workload.
“I threw 150-plus innings during the season,” McRae said. “They just wanted me to get some extra work out here, and just limit innings as much as possible. Just going out there for one or two innings a couple of times a week, and get my work in.”
It wasn’t a surprise that McRae went to the AFL, since he was an interesting arm to send for extra work, after finishing strong in Altoona over the final month and a half. This all followed a rough start at the level after a mid-season promotion.
McRae made a big adjustment to his approach this year, switching from his four-seam fastball to his two-seamer. He threw the two-seamer a lot in high school, but after going to college and seeing a velocity increase, he switched to the four seam. He started throwing the two-seamer more often halfway through the 2016 season, and started seeing a lot of ground balls.
“It’s primarily what I throw now as my fastball, and it’s been good,” McRae said of the two-seamer.
McRae always had some good natural movement on his four seam fastball, and generally when a pitcher has that ability with the four seamer, he will see a very effective two-seamer with a lot of movement. McRae hasn’t seen anything extreme, but it’s been enough to be effective.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a ton more movement, but it’s just enough to miss the barrel and get a lot of ground balls,” McRae said.
As for the struggles in Altoona, he got away from relying on the two-seamer, but started seeing success again after switching back to the pitch.
“I think when I first got to Altoona, I got away from that a little bit,” McRae said. “Which is what I was doing in Bradenton, and I had success with it, and then I got there, kind of got away, and then got back to it and finished strong.”
The focus this off-season is still on the two-seamer, although it’s not a pitch that needs a lot of work, especially after seeing a 60% ground ball rate in the final month in Altoona. McRae also throws a slider, which can generate some strikeouts, although it’s more of an average pitch due to a lack of consistency executing it and making it a sharp pitch. The big focus for him this off-season has been the changeup.
“I’m trying to work on my changeup a lot more,” McRae said. “Trying to develop that a little bit. That’s the pitch that I’m lacking the most right now. Other than that, just keep working on everything at the same time.”
The changeup saw some adjustments during instructs, with McRae going to a new grip. He’s now holding the ball with a two-seam type grip, trying to confuse batters as they see it out of the hand. Instead of his index and middle finger on the ball, he’s using his middle and ring finger to grip the pitch, taking some velocity off in the process.
“I’m starting to get a feel for it, and able to throw it more for strikes right now,” McRae said. “I’ve been getting a couple of swings and misses on it, and weak contact. Getting a good feel for it.”
The extra work this off-season helps, although McRae noted that it’s difficult to use the pitch as a reliever, since he has so few opportunities to throw secondary pitches in one or two innings of work. That’s going to be an important pitch for him moving forward, especially if he wants to remain a starter.
I could see McRae returning to the Altoona rotation at the start of the 2017 season, as he only had 88.1 innings at the level, and the Pirates tend to give a full season of innings before moving guys up. He is also blocked in Indianapolis, so if he remains a starter, he will have to remain in Altoona, until a spot opens up above him.
Long-term, I think McRae profiles best as a reliever, with a Jared Hughes type profile of a sinkerball heavy pitcher who doesn’t have much of an out pitch and relies almost exclusively on ground balls. That reduces the need to improve the secondary stuff, although he will still need to have that for when the balls find holes through the infield and he runs into trouble. If he wants to exceed this upside, he’d need to improve the changeup, and get more consistent with the slider. If that happens, he could have a shot at the back of a rotation in a weak rotation, or would serve as a depth starter out of Triple-A.
