Tim Benz: Joe Musgrove's health essential to Pirates rotation fulfilling promise

It was said so many times last year, it almost became a running joke.

“You know, that Joe Musgrove. He’s more than just a pitcher. He’s an athlete!”

If you heard it once, you heard it a thousand times. From teammates, coaches, fans and media that cover the team.

“Joe is a ball player. He doesn’t just think of himself as a pitcher,” Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage said. “He thinks of himself as a competitor at the plate and on the grass as a fielder.”

Yes, Musgrove is athletic. He runs well, fields the position and — of course — slides.

Ask the Cubs.

Now, in his second season as a Pirate, it’s time to see how much Musgrove has improved as a pitcher.

He’ll get his first start of 2019 Friday against the Reds after a two-inning relief appearance Sunday in Cincinnati.

A potential issue is that Musgrove was slowed by an injury that would hinder any athlete.

Pitcher or otherwise.

Musgrove was shut down late last season and ended up having surgery to repair a pelvic bone stress reaction and an abdominal-wall strain.

Given Musgrove’s competitive nature, it was fair to worry he may try to come back too quickly.

“You learn through experience,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “He’s worked through some injuries. And I think he’d tell you that he was probably a little more aggressive than he would probably like to be coming back.

“Working through this time, I felt it was done solid. It was done well.”

Musgrove agrees that he channeled his recovery time properly this winter. But he got jumpy on occasion.

“The hardest part was sitting still for six weeks, not working out,” Musgrove said . “After four weeks, you come out of that surgery feeling pretty decent. So I felt like I could be doing more than I was. But I tried to stay the course.”

Musgrove had some arm pain early in spring training. He attributed that to not trusting his core and using his arm too much instead of his lower body to generate power.

Now, the 26-year-old right-hander says he feels good. There’s still some work to do, though.

“I don’t feel as if I have as much power and velocity as I normally do,” Musgrove said. “I’m still able to locate my stuff and get the action on the pitches that I normally do.

“The arm is ready to go. It’s just the translation of the kinetic chain and how you are producing your power. It all starts with your glutes and your core. The stronger that gets, and the better I get with flexibility and range of motion, the more (power and velocity) will come along.”

Musgrove says he’s in the process of “learning to use his core muscles all over again.”

For the sake of the Pirates, he better learn quickly. Musgrove is a crucial component toward making that starting rotation everything it is supposed to be.

And needs to be.

The club’s bullpen, fielding and hitting with runners in scoring position have all been underwhelming to start 2019. This highly touted starting five may have to exceed the lofty expectations it had breaking spring training.

If Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams carry over their efforts from 2019, they project as the team’s top-two starters. That leaves Chris Archer and Musgrove — theoretically — holding down the third and fourth spots.

By Aug. 18 last season, Musgrove’s ERA was 3.31 with nine quality starts under his belt. Then that injury started to nag at him, and he ended up with a 6-9 record and 4.06 ERA before getting shelved after allowing five runs to the Royals on Sept. 17.

Archer got off to a decent start this year by shutting out the Cardinals through five innings Monday before the bullpen blew the lead in a 6-5 loss in the home opener.

Musgrove now looks to expand on his limited repertoire from that solid relief outing Sunday, which substituted for what would’ve been his season debut Saturday, when the game was rained out.

“I spun a couple curveballs, used the changeup and the two-seam (fastball),” Musgrove said. “I was able to put them in play in a game scenario and get a little use out of them. But as far as preparing pitches, it didn’t do a whole lot for me.”

Musgrove was effective, retiring all six batters he faced. Now it’s a matter of building off that base for a full start.

And maybe the take-out slides of infielders can wait a game or two.