Dillon Peters, Mason Martin happy with changeups, as Blue Jays pound Pirates

DUNEDIN, Fla. – Dillon Peters was a late addition to the Pittsburgh Pirates’ starting rotation last season after being acquired from the Los Angeles Angels for cash considerations in mid-July. After the Pirates signed fellow lefty Jose Quintana to a free-agent deal, Peters seemed like a forgotten man in the competition for a starting job.

So Peters tried to change to that conversation.

Peters was happy with the way he threw his changeup in his first start of spring training, using it to strike out two of the eight batters he faced in two innings of a 10-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday afternoon at TD Ballpark.

Alejandro Kirk hit a two-run home run off Peters, one of three by the Blue Jays. Matt Chapman hit a two-run shot off Bryse Wilson in the third and Greg Bird a solo homer off Sam Howard in the sixth. Toronto added four runs in the eighth inning, when Enmanuel Mejia allowed a single, double, three walks and threw two wild pitches.

For Peters, the effectiveness of his changeup was a positive.

“The changeup was working good; I was getting ahead of hitters early,” Peters said. “A home run is going to happen. I’m going to give up more this year, so I thought overall I felt pretty good in the outing and pretty good with the results.”

Peters, a 5-foot-11, 190-pound lefty, allowed two runs on two hits while throwing 19 of his 28 pitches for strikes. After going 1-2 with a 3.71 ERA in 26 2/3 innings over six starts for the Pirates last season, Peters is trying to lock down a spot in the starting rotation. He made eight starts in Triple-A Salt Lake last season before being traded to the Pirates.

“I threw really good bullets from April to September,” Peters said. “I even said it halfway through the year, when I was in Triple-A with the Angels, ‘This is one of my best years. I’m throwing the best bullets of my career.’ I wasn’t sulking in Triple-A; I was trying repeat that every day, trying to get better every day. Like I said, the Pirates gave me an opportunity. I went out there and tried to throw the same bullets. I had some pretty good results.”

“You can always get better and always take things away from other outings in past seasons but I think, overall, from an execution standpoint, last year was a huge step in the right direction for my career.”

Mason Martin took a similar step by crushing a Maximo Castillo changeup to right-center for his first home run of the spring to lead off the seventh inning and adding a single in the ninth.

The Pirates took a 1-0 lead when Kevin Newman hit a leadoff double and scored on a Roberto Perez sacrifice fly in the first. Ji-hwan Bae drove in Rodolfo Castro in the fifth on a fielder’s choice, Martin homered in the seventh and right fielder Bligh Madris added a solo homer to lead off the eighth.

A slugging first baseman, Martin was the Pirates’ 2019 minor league player of the year and hit 22 home runs with 75 RBIs last season at Double-A Altoona. But Martin’s 34.3% strikeout rate raised eyebrows, and he was left in limbo this past offseason when he wasn’t added to the 40-man roster. That exposed Martin for the Rule 5 Draft, which was canceled when the lockout ended.

Now, Martin can focus on being a run producer who remains one of the top power bats in the Pirates’ farm system.

“For me, there was just a lot of noise. Nothing actually happened. I’m still the same old Mason. God works in mysterious ways,” Martin said. “I see it as a blessing. I want to be here. I want to be a Pittsburgh Pirates. That’s always been my goal since I got drafted in 2017, to become the first baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates.”