SURPRISE, AZ – The fact that Montana DuRapau has advanced to Double-A, was selected for the Arizona Fall League, and is generally considered a legit prospect — even if his upside is low — is pretty remarkable. DuRapau didn’t seem to have a chance at any of this when he was drafted.
The Pirates took the right-hander in the 32nd round in 2014 as a college senior out of Bethune-Cookman. He was only 5′ 11″ and threw in the upper 80s. The combination of a late-round college senior who was short and didn’t have good velocity just screamed “organizational reliever”. But that all changed in 2015.
DuRapau started the 2015 season in the West Virginia bullpen, but was quickly moved up to Bradenton after just 11 appearances and 19.1 innings. He was suddenly flashing a fastball that would sit 90-93 MPH, along with a new cutter that was getting outs. He spent most of the season in Bradenton, putting up some strong numbers with a 1.40 ERA in 51.1 innings, along with a 47:8 K/BB ratio, still working with the fastball/cutter combo. He finished the year in Altoona, making two appearances at the end of the season.
That fastball/cutter combo put him on the radar as a guy who might have a shot at being a middle reliever in the majors one day. But DuRapau ran into some issues early in the 2016 season that raised some doubts.
He started the season on a rough note, giving up five earned runs in nine innings in April. His velocity was back down to the upper 80s, showing a change from the velocity that led to some of his success the previous year. He was getting strikeouts early with the cutter, but that stopped in May, as he only struck out six batters in 11 innings. Part of the early issues were due to health, with DuRapau admitting he was dealing with some issues early in the year.
“I was just dealing with some inconsistency, health wise,” DuRapau said. “I need to find better ways to take care of myself. Towards the end of the year, when things start going bad, it seems like they hit every mistake that you make, and it’s hard to get out of that rut.”
DuRapau settled down a bit in the middle of the season, but started to struggle again in the second half, with a 6.60 ERA in 15 innings after the All-Star break, along with a 14:8 K/BB ratio. The velocity was still in the upper 80s, but he also saw his cutter becoming less effective, as he started increasing the usage of the pitch.
“I use my cutter and my fastball 50/50,” DuRapau said. “They kind of play off of each other, because the cutter has a downward movement, and my fastball has a decently high spin rate, it kind of rises sometimes. They kind of work with each other.”
DuRapau wasn’t getting a lot of ground balls with the fastball, so the increased usage of the cutter is a good approach. As DuRapau notes, his fastball does have some good movement, but there’s only so much that movement can accomplish when the pitch is dipping below 90 MPH. The problem with increased usage of the cutter was that it removed the effectiveness of that pitch as an out pitch. This led to DuRapau turning back to a pitch that he had thrown since he was a kid: His curveball.
“The cutter can be a strikeout pitch,” DuRapau said. “It just kind of depends on how the at-bat is set up. But the curveball, it’s just there. I can use it as a get-me-over, or if a guy hasn’t seen it yet, it’s pretty sharp at times. I can use my cutter as a fastball to get ahead and bury a curveball and put somebody away, where as if I show a guy two cutters in an at-bat, I’m probably not going to strike him out with it.”
DuRapau’s secondary stuff went through an evolution this year. He started with a slider, a cutter, and a curveball. As the season went on, the slider and the cutter were starting to merge together, and the cutter was losing velocity, while the slider was flattening out. So he adjusted the grip to throw the cutter harder, more like his fastball, and started using the curveball as his out pitch. DuRapau has noticed improvements with this approach the longer he’s been using it.
“The curveball has been my best pitch since I was a little kid,” DuRapau said. “That kind of started me on the track of wanting to be a pitcher. It’s something that I have a lot of feel for, that I can throw for a strike whenever I want. But if you throw it for a strike too many times, you start getting away from ‘I need to put this guy away with it’ and it’s too hittable. And that’s what I’ve been trying to get away from.”
DuRapau said that he needs to get in the mindset of trying to bury the curveball, trusting that the pitch looks good and that opponents will swing. By setting them up with a fastball/cutter combo, he’s able to use the curve as a new look to surprise them, rather than giving them a look at the pitch earlier in the count when he throws the curve for a strike.
The AFL season has given DuRapau continued work on his secondary stuff. He’s been working on throwing his cutter inside to right-handers, and as a backdoor pitch to lefties. He’s also trying to challenge guys with the fastball, and overall just seeing how good the cutter can be. That combination, plus the development of his curveball as an out pitch, will determine how far he can go in the future.
“They’ve all been improving as the AFL has moved along,” DuRapau said. “I’m excited.”
Before I went out to Arizona, DuRapau’s numbers were poor. I saw him twice in the week I was there, and both outings were quick, efficient, and full of ground balls, with a few strikeouts, including one on his curve. That showed the improvements he was making throughout the season.
DuRapau should move up to Indianapolis at some point in 2017. He might not make it right away, due to the need for MLB depth at the start of the year, but should make the jump as that depth starts to move up or thin out. He doesn’t have a ton of upside, with the upside of a middle reliever, or a more conservative upside as Triple-A depth. But considering that just two years ago he was a small college senior taken in the 32nd round, that’s a pretty big accomplishment.
