Pirates A to Z: After earning his first victory, Geoff Hartlieb found a role as a reliever

During the offseason, the Tribune-Review will offer Pirates A to Z, an alphabetical player-by-player look at the 40-man roster, from outfielder Anthony Alford to pitcher Trevor Williams. (The only MLB player with a surname that starts with Z is Detroit Tigers pitcher Jordan Zimmerman).

Player: Geoff Hartlieb

Position: Pitcher

Throws: Right

Age: 26

Height: 6-foot-5

Weight: 235 pounds

2020 MLB statistics: 1-0, 3.63 ERA/1.567 WHIP in 22⅓ innings over 21 appearances

Contract: Not yet eligible for arbitration

Acquired: Drafted by the Pirates in the 29th round in 2016

This past season: Hartlieb was cut during summer camp and started the season at the alternate training site in Altoona before his recall on July 28 when relievers Kyle Crick and Clay Holmes went on the injured list.

Despite making the two-hour drive, Hartlieb pitched two scoreless innings that night in an 8-6 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers to earn his first major-league victory.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton called it a “big day” for Hartlieb, who allowed two hits and had one strikeout in throwing 12 of 17 pitches for strikes while facing six batters.

“It’s a credit to Geoff being sent out of camp, it’s a credit to the staff over in Altoona making sure that he stays on task with what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, and then he comes in and gets big outs,” Shelton said. “Not the easiest situation when you drive over in a car and you get put in the heart of that game and you go back out in the eighth and do what he did: First big league win. I mean, I experienced that a couple days ago. It’s a cool experience. It’s fun to be able to congratulate a guy on his first big league win.”

Segment on Geoff Hartlieb and how he has cleaned up his movements. Which in return has made his release high and ball flight more consistent. pic.twitter.com/UwBRivuw4K

— Michael McKenry (@theFortMcKenry) September 16, 2020

Hartlieb credited changes in his arm angle and pitch repertoire, as he learned to trust his stuff and attack hitters. A meeting with pitching coach Oscar Marin and bullpen coach Justin Meccage helped Hartlieb find a focused approach and make mechanical changes to help tunnel his pitches.

“One of the things we did with Geoff was we sat him and down and explained what his strengths were,” Marin said. “One of the things he had in the offseason and one of the things he was working on was with his four-seam fastball. Well, just sitting down and explaining to him what his strengths were, he got to the big leagues with a heavy, power sinker. Just showing him different ways of using that sinker, different locations where he was getting beat and also identifying what we wanted to do with his slider. … I think clarity for him of what makes him good is probably the biggest difference-maker for him.”

As he concentrated on sinkers and ditched his four-seam fastball in favor of a two-seamer, Hartlieb’s confidence increased.

Going through some pitches on Statcast and came across this absolutely filthy sinker from Geoff Hartlieb.

He didn’t have great control over the pitch (.294 ISO against the pitch), but it did have a 38.9% chase rate

Really though I just wanted to share this filthy pitch though pic.twitter.com/Tuq8QPfWxi

— Ben Palmer (@benjpalmer) March 28, 2020

“It’s putting it in the zone and giving them a chance to attack it,” Hartlieb said. “It’s attacking yourself and then trusting that, even if they put the bat on the ball, the angle I’m creating with the pitch will, whether it’s hard contact or not, will put it in the ground, let my defense make plays behind me. Less-than-three-pitch outs are huge. That’s what we’re going for. I’ve got the stuff to do that consistently. It’s just attacking with those pitches and trusting that it will happen. The strikeouts will come off foul balls, swings and misses. We’ll get to two-strike counts. We can work off of that.”

The problem for Hartlieb was finding the strike zone. He finished with as many walks (19) as he did strikeouts, including a disastrous outing against the Cincinnati Reds. Hartlieb entered the game in the bottom of the sixth inning of a doubleheader and hit the first batter he faced, walked the next three and followed a fielder’s choice with a wild pitch and another walk before being yanked.

The future: Despite his inconsistency, Hartlieb found a role in the Pirates’ bullpen as a middle reliever. Whether he can continue in that role next season is a matter of how well he pitches.

“I’m hoping I can keep pitching well and establish myself as someone who does earn a role in the near future,” Hartlieb said. “It is nice to get in those games where they really matter. The outs are big. The adrenaline comes along with it. It’s fun, no doubt about it. Everything goes through pitching mop-up innings, cleanup sometimes. You have to do it when you do come up. But it is a lot more fun pitching when the outs matter.”

Check out the entire Pirates A to Z series here.