The Pittsburgh Pirates have 22 pitchers on their 40-man roster.

By the time they complete the list of nonroster players who will be invited to spring training, that number almost certainly will exceed 30.

So Luke Maile has plenty of work in front of him when he arrives in Bradenton on Feb. 10, the day pitchers and catchers begin taking their physical examinations.

Expected to be the backup catcher behind Jacob Stallings, Maile will be entering his first season with the Pirates after signing a one-year, $900,000 contract as a free agent Dec. 16. He will need to learn a lot of pitchers in a relatively short time.

“You can talk all day about how important it is to know guys, but in this game, sometimes you don’t really have that fortune and you’ve got to learn on the fly,” Maile said. “I’m going to try to embrace that with the position I play and trying to get better at it every day in terms of communication with the pitching staff.”

Working with pitchers and overall defense have been Maile’s strength during his five seasons in the major leagues with the Tampa Bay Rays (2015-16) and Toronto Blue Jays (2017-19).

Maile has thrown out 33% of runners attempting to steal, including a career-best 40% (12 of 30) last season. The major league average was 28% from 2015-19 and 27% last year.

Maile also scored well in Baseball Prospectus’ pitch-framing metrics last season, ranking 16th among the 56 qualified catchers in the major leagues.

By comparison, Elias Diaz, the Pirates’ primary catcher last season, ranked last in pitch framing while throwing out 26% of would-be base stealers.

“In a lot of respects, it’s kept me in the big leagues,” Maile said of his defense. “My offensive output has not been very good for two of the last three years.”

Maile has hit just .198/.252/.304 with 10 home runs in 215 career games and had a dismal 2019 in which he posted a .151/.205/.235 line in 44 games. The Blue Jays released him at the end of the season.

But, at 28, Maile isn’t ready to accept being just a good-field, no-hit catcher.

That .151 batting average of a year ago, obviously, didn’t sit well and motivates him. It was the fifth-lowest in the major leagues last season among players with at least 100 plate appearances.

“There are two sides of the ball, right?” Maile said. “I’m not exactly thrilled with how I’ve hit the ball. I know I’m capable of more than that. I don’t want to paint the picture that I’m out there to be a black hole in the lineup and just play defense.

“Defense is nice and something I want to continue to do well, but there are other parts of my game that I intend on showing with the Pirates.”

Maile doesn’t need to worry about making a quick impression on his new bosses, though. General manager Ben Cherington oversaw the Blue Jays’ player development department the past three years, and manager Derek Shelton was the Rays’ hitting coach during Maile’s two seasons with Tampa Bay.

Perhaps the Pirates should think about Maile as a two-way player, someone who also could help a pitching staff that had the second-worst ERA in the National League last season (5.18).

Maile made the first two pitching appearances of his major league career last season during blowouts and worked a scoreless inning in each. He even struck out three of the eight batters he faced.

“I think I’ve gotten extraordinary lucky on the mound up until this point, and I think the house might wind up winning if I keep taking take my money to that table,” Maile said with a laugh.

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