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James Marvel Experiencing the Tough Road Back From Tommy John

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MORGANTOWN, WV – If you follow me on Twitter, you get a lot of baseball talk, and then a lot of comic book talk, mostly centered around Marvel Comics and their movies and shows. So when the Pirates drafted James Marvel in the 36th round of the 2015 draft, it only took me about three seconds to make my first comic book reference. Fortunately, Marvel seems to be on board with the play on his name.

“My Twitter handle actually has that whole Marvel thing in the background,” he said. “It’s pretty cool. People doing the play on my name. It’s fun. My first outing this year [in Morgantown] was on superhero night. I wore the Captain America jersey. I thought that was pretty special, first start in over two years, first professional start. That’s cool. It’s always fun to do that.”

When Marvel was drafted, I didn’t think I would ever get a chance to use any references to the comics, because I didn’t expect him to sign. Most college juniors in the later rounds don’t sign, and opt to return for their senior year, rather than taking a smaller bonus. Marvel was also rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, so signing him meant you weren’t going to see him pitch in an official game for a year.

But the Pirates offered up an over-slot bonus of $150,000, which is top ten round money, and Marvel took it, starting his pro career by rehabbing with the Pirates. He didn’t make his pro debut until joining Morgantown, but pitched in Spring Training and extended Spring Training earlier in the year.

I got to see a few outings from Marvel before he made his official pro debut, and the biggest thing that stood out to me was that he generates a lot of weak contact. Last week I saw him in Morgantown for the first time during the Black Bears season, and while he had one of his worst starts of the year, there were still flashes of that ground ball ability, with 13 ground outs to one fly out.

Marvel didn’t have a good start, giving up six runs on seven hits in six innings, with two walks and two strikeouts. The bulk of the damage came in the fifth inning, when he gave up five runs, and his game really broke down out of the stretch that inning. This all followed several innings where he looked great, getting a lot of weak contact. He did have another bad inning, giving up two runs in the third.

In a way, the start was a microcosm of his season. He had some really good innings, then some innings which just fell apart. Likewise, he’s had some really good starts, and then a stark difference in some of his other outings. This start was one of the bad ones, and continues a trend of three straight starts with poor results.

“I’m coming off two outings where I wasn’t very happy with how I threw,” Marvel said after the start. “That kind of continued tonight. There were some innings and some instances where I threw some pretty good pitches, was happy with how things were going. And then other times, credit to them, they put some decent swings on the ball.”

I talked to a scout who thought Marvel had potential early in the start, but didn’t like what he saw out of the stretch later in the start. The Pirates chalk this inconsistency — both in the start and throughout the season — to Marvel returning from Tommy John.

“He’s a surgery guy,” Black Bears Manager Wyatt Toregas said after that start. “He had the two year layoff. It’s hard to expect consistency in one phase or another phase all the time. He’ll come out and have a really good outing, and then the next outing he’ll be a completely different guy. The arm is getting better, but it’s still not to the point where you know exactly what you’re going to get from it everyday. … He still has a ways to go before he gets fully back to where he wants to get after the surgery.”

I wrote on Thursday night about how Jameson Taillon has really made the expectations unfair for guys returning from Tommy John, with his flawless rehab and return to the mound. John Dreker expanded on this today, looking at how some of the other Tommy John guys have struggled from outing to outing with their command. Marvel definitely fits in this very normal category where his command isn’t consistent.

But don’t expect him to just accept that. He didn’t.

“My first pro season back from surgery, I expect every time to go out and throw very well, to not give up many runs, and to go deep into the game,” Marvel said. “This is baseball, so obviously that’s not going to happen every single time. I still expect to do that, and I expect that of myself. There have been instances this year where I’ve done that. I think with that in mind, it’s frustrating where there’s an outing where you don’t throw well, your team doesn’t win.”

Part of the problem that night was that it was a lefty stacked lineup, leading Marvel to throw his four-seam more often. He said that he’s split on how he uses the four-seam and two-seam, but in seeing both pitches, the two-seamer has good movement and is more effective, while the four-seamer is flatter and isn’t nearly effective. He was leaving it up in the zone that night, and it was getting hit hard. That could also just be due to the return from surgery.

The changeup also wasn’t helping him on this night, and once again this might be due to command, since he’s done well with the pitch at other times, and has a .245 BAA versus lefties this year.

“There’s been times this year when my changeup has been a plus pitch for me,” Marvel said. “A lot of ground balls, a lot of swing and misses. The same thing with my breaking ball. Outing to outing, that can change. You don’t have feel in the next outing, you’ve got to go to something else more. That’s pitching.”

So what’s the appeal with Marvel? A lot of it is faith that he will get much better, the further removed he is from Tommy John. His two-seamer is his best fastball, and while he doesn’t have a fantastic 4-seamer, the other fastball isn’t doomed. He’s not going to torch other batters with the pitch, but when the changeup doesn’t go invisible, the four-seamer is a thing he can use successfully in combination with the changeup, which means it’s not a stretch to envision future success against lefties.

But the biggest thing I like is that he does get a lot of easy grounders when he’s on his game, and pairs the two-seamer with a curveball that has some good break, and can be an average-to-above average pitch one day. He also has a tall frame with the chance to add some muscle and maybe add a bit of velocity. The Pirates love guys like Marvel who generate a lot of weak grounders, so you can expect him to continue getting starts in the future.

Right now, it appears he might be getting a bit of a break after three rough outings. The Pirates are pretty cautious with bringing guys back their first year, and work rest into the return process. Clay Holmes finished his season early last year, and Jameson Taillon has skipped a few starts this year to get some breaks.

It’s going to be really difficult to get a full evaluation of Marvel until he’s further removed from his Tommy John rehab, even if he would disagree with that reasoning. For now, he shows some positive signs, with a few promising pitches that could make him an interesting starter to follow next year in his first full season back after his rehab.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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