Manny Banuelos, exemplifying how to persist in the major leagues, enjoying current ride with Pirates

The pain in his arm persisted. His velocity had dropped to what would be considered standard for a decent high school prospect.

By the summer of 2016, Manny Banuelos had good reason to believe he had been cursed by the baseball gods.

“I remember 2016, when I got released from the Braves, my arm was hurting a lot, and I was only throwing 87 miles per hour,” he said. “I thought my career was over.”

Banuelos, once a highly touted left-handed pitcher working his way through the New York Yankees farm system, was on the verge of joining the endless list of big-time prospects who, for one reason or another, failed to live up to the hype.

But somehow, Banuelos managed to stay the course.

Now, the 31-year-old’s career has come full circle with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Coming out of the bullpen, he is experiencing the most consistent stretch of his MLB career.

Aside from a rough Pirates debut July 6, when he allowed five earned runs while recording just one out, his ERA read 0.66 through 13 2/3 innings heading into Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Reds.

There are few players across the MLB who better embody what it means to persevere than Banuelos. With multiple surgeries to his pitching arm and a career that’s taken him across the globe, he’s experienced more than a few setbacks.

“I love baseball, and I love pitching,” he said. “I’ve been enjoying it my whole career for the last 14 years. I always feel like I have a chance.”

Banuelos, a native of Gomez Palacio, Durango, Mexico, was a hard-throwing youth phenom coming out of his native country.

In 2008, before he turned 17, he signed with the Yankees after turning heads in the Mexican League.

Soon after, he was being billed as one of the Yankees’ top minor league prospects — one of the “Killer B’s,” along with fellow pitchers Andrew Brackman and Dellin Betances.

Pirates outfielder Ben Gamel, who was drafted by the Yankees in 2010, crossed paths with Banuelos nearly a decade ago, when they were working their way through the minors.

In 2014, they were teammates on the Trenton Thunder, then the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate.

“He was legit,” Gamel said. “He was impressive. I remember, we used to have to bunt off pitchers early in spring. It was my first spring, and I remember I had to bunt off of Manny. He was throwing hard — like 97-98 — with a really good breaking ball. (The hype) was very warranted.”

Banuelos’ first few years in the Yankees organization were on par with the anticipation surrounding him.

However, beginning in 2012, injuries began to derail what had appeared to be a very promising route to the majors.

Banuelos underwent Tommy John surgery in his throwing arm, which sidelined him for the entirety of the 2013 campaign.

In early 2015, after nearly seven years in the Yankees farm system and without having gotten a taste of the majors, he was traded to Atlanta.

That season, he made his MLB debut, and through July 2015, things appeared to be falling into place for Banuelos, who posted a 2.49 ERA through five appearances, four of which were starts.

Unfortunately, injuries were not done taking a toll on his body. Before the 2015 season concluded, he underwent surgery to remove bone spurs in his left elbow.

As the following campaign got underway, Banuelos bounced around in the Braves system before ultimately being designated for assignment that summer.

Still, he persisted, spending 2016 and ‘17 in the minors with the Angels and Dodgers before being traded to the White Sox in the 2018 offseason.

It was with Chicago, on March 30, 2019, that Banuelos made his return to the majors, having last appeared with the Braves in September 2015.

Banuelos posted a sub-2.00 ERA for April, showing flashes of his former self. But by year’s end, he’d gone 3-4 with a 6.93 ERA in 16 outings, splitting time as a starter and reliever.

The White Sox released him that offseason, and while he landed a minor league deal with the Seattle Mariners in early 2020, Banuelos was released at the end of May.

At that point in his career, having turned 29 a few months prior, and with less-than-stellar lifetime MLB numbers, Banuelos sought an international solution in the name of continuing his baseball career.

A few weeks after parting with the Mariners, Banuelos inked a contract with the Fubon Guardians, based in Taiwan, of the Chinese Professional Baseball League.

The connotation that came with playing overseas was not lost on Banuelos, who remained determined to use the experience as a vehicle to return to the major leagues and not fade away from relevancy.

“I know a lot of guys, when they go to play in those leagues, their mind is like, ‘OK, I’m going to stay here forever now,’ ” he said. “I was like, ‘I’m going to pitch here for a couple years and I’m going to show that I still have it.’ ”

Banuelos’ time in Taiwan had a resuscitating effect on his career.

Banuelos began to gain confidence, with his velocity notably returning to levels akin to when he was a star prospect in New York’s minor league system.

“After a few outings in Taiwan, when I was throwing 95-96 (mph) with good command and everything, throwing good pitches and breaking balls, I told my people in Mexico and my agent, ‘Man, I have a chance to go back to the bigs,’ ” Banuelos said.

By the time he was released by the Guardians to represent Mexico in the 2020 Summer Olympics, which, because of the covid-19 pandemic, began in the summer of 2021, Banuelos had produced an ERA under 2.00 in both of his seasons with the club.

Banuelos returned to the Mexican League in 2021, joining the Sultanes de Monterrey, where he managed to get the attention of major league scouts again. Oddly enough, it was the Yankees who ended up acquiring his services, inking him to a minor league deal in early 2022.

On June 3, nearly a decade-and-a-half after originally signing with the Yankees as a teenager, Banuelos finally debuted with New York.

After four appearances with the Yankees in June, during which time he posted a 2.16 ERA, Banuelos was traded to the Pirates for cash considerations in early July.

Since then, he has come into his own as a part of the Pirates bullpen. Not counting his first appearance for the Pirates, Banuelos has been rock solid.

He has yet to allow an earned run in August, and, for the year, his ERA is 3.22.

Banuelos said it wasn’t difficult settling in with the Pirates once he was picked up. He reconnected with Gamel as well as with Daniel Vogelbach, now of the Mets, with whom he was familiar, too.

He also knew fellow reliever Yohan Ramirez, when the two were with the Mariners during spring training of 2020.

For Banuelos, finding success with the Pirates has been vindicating. As can easily be expected, the way his career unfolded attracted a fair share of naysayers.

“I know it was a long process, but in my mind it was my goal: go back to the bigs,” he said. “To be honest, a lot of people told me, ‘You have no chance.’ I said, ‘I do,’ and now I’m here.”

Perhaps none of Banuelos’ Pirates teammates can better appreciate his trials and tribulations than Chase De Jong, a player who knows firsthand how it feels to leave the show.

After floating around the organizations of the Blue Jays, Dodgers, Mariners and Twins, De Jong found himself without an MLB opportunity in 2019 and had to play independent ball with the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League for parts of two seasons before the Astros scooped him up in August 2020.

“It’s something you can’t fully appreciate until it’s been taken for you,” De Jong said. “…There’s multiple ways to get here and there’s multiple ways to keep playing — but to see a guy who’s been through the ringer time and time again to now have success at the highest level, it’s just a feel-good story that you love to hear and you love to know.”

The resolve Banuelos showed in working his way back to the majors impressed the Pirates front office, in addition to an effective slider and resurgent fastball.

“I would expect all of the experiences he’s had all over the world and the adversity he’s faced probably made him a different person, too — helped shape the competitor,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said.

“He really competes out there. Aside from the pitches that we like, the competitor really shows up when he’s out there. And we appreciate that a lot.”

Banuelos, ever the underdog at 31 years old, continues to enjoy the ride.

“I’m comfortable here, man,” Banuelos said. “I feel good. I’m friendly with everybody, and I love my teammates.”