BRADENTON, Fla. – Kyle Nicolas scratched the top of his right thumb in the bullpen before his outing against the Baltimore Orioles and ended up getting blood all over his white uniform pants.
In his final appearance before joining Team Italy for the World Baseball Classic, Nicolas overcame the mishap to toss a scoreless ninth inning and finish off a 6-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles before 4,573 Friday at LECOM Park. It was the second scoreless appearance of spring training for the 27-year-old reliever, who allowed a single and a double but escaped a jam with two runners in scoring position by getting a game-ending groundout.
“Nicolas did a great job,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “He was a little banged up. He had a cut on his finger and did a really good job of getting through that inning. And his stuff looked good, too.
“He’s done a phenomenal job of overcoming a lot of adversity, ups and downs. He’s done really well in some high-leverage spots for us. I think that he continues to get better. Last outing, the breaking ball looked really, really good, and that continues to evolve. He’s staying in the zone and throwing really, really well.”
The 6-foot-3, 216-pound right-hander has pitched 98 innings in 86 appearances over three seasons with the Pirates yet is attempting to carve out a role in the bullpen and make the Opening Day roster for the first time.
“That’s my No. 1 goal coming into spring,” said Nicolas, who started the past two seasons at Triple-A Indianapolis and has one minor league option remaining. “Obviously, you want to be on the team the entire year, but that hasn’t been in the cards for me yet so far in my career. That was my main goal this offseason: I’m going to be ready. I’m going to compete to the best of my abilities.
“At the end of the day, I can only control what I can control, and that’s to give everything that I’ve got when I’m out there in the middle of the diamond. That’s what I’m doing. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. We have a really special group and it’s something I really want to be a part of from the start.”
Nicolas has elite fastball velocity (97.6 mph) and extension, which both rank in the 93rd percentile per Statcast, but has battled spotty command in his major league career. He has averaged 8.8 strikeouts per nine innings and shown the stuff to pitch in leverage situations but also allows 4.9 walks per nine innings.
So, Nicolas challenged himself to sharpen his four-seamer, slider and curveball, and has tinkered with two new pitches this offseason. He’s experimenting with a two-seam fastball and a split-changeup, both of which he unveiled against the Orioles in throwing nine of his 14 pitches for strikes and getting two whiffs.
“I’m just trying to perfect my craft, work on the things that I’m already good at and challenge myself to try to get better at finding new pitches and new ways to get hitters out,” Nicolas said. “At some point, you have to blend the experimenting with competing and doing your best. You have to find that fine line with working and seeing what works versus knowing what works and just going to compete because I’m competing for a job. I’m really just trying to do my best but continue to challenge myself and find ways to improve my game.”
The part of the offseason that Nicolas wasn’t involved in weddings — his own and those of teammates — was spent doing a dive deep into his family heritage after he was invited to play for Team Italy in the WBC. He and his mother did research to determine that his maternal great-grandfather is his nearest ancestor and worked to find a birth certificate to prove the relation.
“It’s the world’s biggest stage for baseball,” Nicolas said. “It’s a really cool opportunity to represent a country that I’m not particularly from but my family has history with.”
Nicolas is hoping playing in the WBC will be a step toward that goal. He has wanted to visit Italy but was busy planning his nuptials with his wife, Ali, this past November in California. Playing for Team Italy has only created more curiosity for Nicolas, given the Pirates connections on Team Italy.
Former Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli is the manager, and its roster includes Nicolas’ locker mate, Joe LaSorsa, a right-handed reliever who played for Italy in the 2023 WBC and is Pirates’ big league camp as non-roster invitee. Right-handed starter Alessandro Ercolani, who spent last season at Double-A Altoona, also is on Team Italy. Pirates senior director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk will be Team Italy’s athletic trainer.
Nicolas is hoping that pitching in a leverage role for Team Italy will be beneficial to help him find one with the Pirates, so his ninth-inning performance against the Orioles was a positive sendoff before he leaves for Arizona.
“That’s definitely a big reason as to why I want to go do this,” Nicolas said. “Getting as much experience on the back end of the bullpen as I can — on that stage, too — I think is only going to bring positives to what I can provide to this team with knowing that I can do in that spot. Hopefully, we’re in some tight, important games and I’m able to go out there and show what I’ve got.”
Note: Braxton Ashcraft is expected to start for the Pirates against former teammate Mike Burrows and the Houston Astros at 1:05 p.m. Saturday in West Palm Beach.
