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Pirates Notebook: Antonio Bastardo Could Be Out Longer Than Ten Days

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PITTSBURGH — Antonio Bastardo’s sideways 2017 season has taken another turn, as the Pirates’ left-handed relief pitcher was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a left quad strain Tuesday.

Bastardo, 31, had been acquired from the New York Mets in exchange for Jon Niese towards the end of the 2016 season and was seen as something of a known commodity after having a successful 2015 season in Pittsburgh.

He pitched fairly well down the stretch last season, putting up a 1.25 WHIP and a 3.94 FIP in 24 innings. Coming into this season, Bastardo out-dueled Jared Hughes, Tyler Webb and Josh Lindblom for one of the final spots in the bullpen.

In the spring, he looked like the same reliable, if not exciting reliever the Pirates thought they were getting when they acquired him. He pitched nine times and while his ERA was an elevated 8.00, his strikeout rate was way high. Bastardo said he’d been working on improving his notoriously slow time in between pitches.

But as soon as the games started counting for real, there was something wrong and it was evident right away.

As I wrote in the Pirates’ first homestand, his velocity was down, and the ball was getting hit — hard. Through six outings, Bastardo has a 16.20 ERA and his FIP is an only slightly better 12.37. He WHIP ballooned to 3.30, more than double his career high for a full season.

Bastardo said the team identified the issue — a lack of extension in his delivery that was sapping his velocity and causing his fastball to cut back across the plate.

“We’ve been working on getting my extension back, my release point and get back to the spot where it was,” Bastardo said. “I think that’s what I need.”

Bastardo insisted that an injury was not the cause of his pitching issues, despite his trip to the disabled list. He strained his left quad in between the innings of his 1.1 inning appearance on Monday. He said he didn’t mention the injury to the team until after the game.

“It’s a tough situation, because you don’t want to take the guys that are pitching good and give them more work,” Bastardo said. “I just preferred staying in there and working my shit out.”

Now, Bastardo will have ten days to work on his stuff while recovering from the quad injury. In fact, it seems likely he’ll take longer than that.

“I’m going to take my time to get my body better and get healthy and work on my stuff and my throwing program,” he said.

That will probably involved a rehab assignment at some point, and perhaps a lengthy one as the Pirates try to figure out what’s wrong with their lefty. In that regard, Bastardo said he feels confident that he’s in good hands. He’s been with three different organizations in his career, and he said he appreciates the dedication the Pirates have to working with pitchers and fixing issues.

“They’ve got a really good focus on what I need to do to be better and to be out there getting people out,” he said. “[Pitching coach Ray Searage], [Bullpen coach Euclides Rojas], they’re just out there with me working on the things that I need to do to get my velocity back and my arm extension.”

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