Pirates A to Z: After struggling in spot starts, Cody Ponce pitched out of bullpen

During the offseason, the Tribune-Review will offer Pirates A to Z: An alphabetical player-by-player look at the 40-man roster, from outfielder Anthony Alford to pitcher Miguel Yajure.

Player: Cody Ponce

Position: Pitcher

Throws: Right

Bats: Right

Age: 27

Height: 6-foot-6

Weight: 255 pounds

2021 MLB statistics: Ponce was 0-6 with a 7.04 ERA and 1.75 WHIP in 38 1/3 innings over 15 appearances, including two starts.

Contract: Not eligible for arbitration until 2025.

Acquired: In a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers, in exchange for Jordan Lyles, in July 2019.

This past season: When Ponce talked about baseball as a Tom and Jerry game, he could have been discussing the back-and-forth nature of repeatedly going from Triple-A Indianapolis to the Pirates.

Instead, he was talking pitching techniques.

Ponce started the season at the alternate training site, and went from Indy to PNC Park four times. In between, he spent time working with Indianapolis pitching coach Joel Hanrahan on getting back to the bottom of the strike zone and locating with his fastball.

“As everybody knows, this game is a cat-and-mouse game, so we had to start to counter the swings that everybody started to do — the launch angle swings, in a sense — so I think that’s where people started to learn the numbers,” Ponce said. “In the sense that, hey, you have better carry on your fastball that’s up, and you’re able to get more strikes up there.

“Now all the hitters are trying to set their sights up, and we have to be able to go back down. It’s just a little Tom and Jerry game, back and forth and learning how to go both up and down, and that’s been kind of my thing now. In college…coming up, I was told to pound the bottom of the strike zone, which is what will get me those early ground balls and those fly ball outs.”

Where Ponce started three of his five appearances in 2020, he ended up in the bullpen after a pair of rough starts this past season. A day after Ponce gave up four earned run on nine hits and one walk in a 4-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs on May 25, he was optioned to Indianapolis.

It was a missed slider down in the zone that served up Joc Pederson’s home run in the third inning — “where we wanted it,” Ponce said, “but that’s baseball” — and Pederson added a two-run shot in the fifth.

On July 3, Ponce allowed five runs on six hits and three walks in an 11-12 loss to Milwaukee. By then, Ponce’s frustration with the spot starts had become apparent.

“My job is, every five days, I go out there and take the baseball whenever they tell me,” Ponce said. “If I’m going to be here for the next five days, 10 days, whatever it is, if I’m spot starting, it doesn’t matter. I do know my job is to throw a baseball, and they’ll tell me when I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.”

Thankfully, he never lost his sense of humor.

“Pretty sure all the basepaths are all 60 feet. The mound is still 60 feet, 6 inches,” Ponce said, quickly catching his error. “First off, let me correct myself: The basepaths are not 60 feet. They’re 90 feet in this league. Make sure that one doesn’t go down on the wrong page there.”

Ponce fared better in a multi-inning relief role, as evidenced by his tossing five scoreless innings in a 9-0 loss to the Brewers on July 27. The Pirates had a late scratch when scheduled starter Tyler Anderson was traded to Seattle, so rookie Luis Oviedo made an emergency start. After Oviedo gave up five hits, including a two-run homer, and five walks, he was pulled in the second inning.

“I mean, he saved us,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Ponce taking pressure off the pitching staff amid a six-game homestand. “He saved our bullpen by giving us the innings and the scoreless innings that he did, and he threw the ball really well.”

Christopher Horner | Tribune-Review

Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin talks with pitcher Cody Ponce and catcher Jacob Stallings during the fifth inning against the Cubs on Tuesday, May 25, 2021, at PNC Park.

Ponce threw 50 of his 79 pitches for strikes, recording five strikeouts. Ponce credited his trust of the pitch-calling by catcher Jacob Stallings.

“He and I were on the same wavelength tonight, and it was so much fun to be able to go out there and just know what pitch I wanted to throw and he wanted to call,” Ponce said. “It was just like playing ping pong with each other, just back and forth.”

Given the way Ponce’s major league career has gone — often serving as the 27th man for seven-inning doubleheaders — he learned to be prepared for anything at any time.

“Um, you know what, I had come to a conclusion in an evaluation of myself that just knowing, hey, whatever I need to do … is what I’m going to do,” Ponce said, “whether it’s being the 27th man like I was last year or throwing out of the ‘pen like today or being a starter like I’ve been a couple times. You know what, it’s whatever the guys need.”

Although batters teed off on his pitches — batting .417 against his changeup and slider, .346 against his cutter, .328 against his four-seamer and .314 against his curve — Ponce proved that he could eat innings. He pitched at least three innings in six of his 16 appearances and pitched at least two innings in six more.

One of his most effective outings was three hitless and scoreless innings in a 4-3 win over Washington on Sept. 10, when Ponce allowed one walk while facing nine batters.

“I think that we all know that I’ve built up as a starter all year long,” Ponce said. “I started in Triple-A, so the workload isn’t so much that we know I can do it. I’ve been doing it. It’s just, hey, we need you for a long guy today. Like I said, whatever they need me for, I’m just going out there and give the best stuff that I’ve got, whether all I’ve got is a heater or all I’ve got is some spin stuff. I’m just going to go out there and give whatever I can.”

The future: A rough season makes Ponce’s spot on the 40-man roster a tenuous one, especially with the Pirates requiring a roster move for free agent lefty Jose Quintana.

It didn’t help that Ponce gave up eight home runs in 15 appearances and averaged 13.1 hits per nine innings.

Ponce’s years of club control and his ability to start or pitch middle relief, where he might be better suited, could keep him in the mix.