Pirates reliever Caleb Ferguson looks to stabilize following bumpy May

Upon joining the Pittsburgh Pirates as a free agent in January, Caleb Ferguson had a simple message to management and the front office.

“I told them on Day 1 that there’s 27 outs — I want to help you get as many of them as I can, and I don’t care where they fall,” he said.

For Ferguson, a 28-year-old lefty reliever who previously spent parts of five seasons (2018-20, 2022-23) with the Los Angeles Dodgers, those outs largely have fallen late in games.

Entering Friday’s series opener against the San Diego Padres, only four of his 26 appearances had come before the seventh inning. He is 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA, striking out 16 with nine walks over 23⅓ innings.

Ferguson got off to a dominant start, delivering eight straight scoreless outings to begin the season. By the end of April, his ERA was 2.38.

But in May, Ferguson has navigated through a handful of multi-run appearances, including May 12 against the New York Mets, when he was charged with a blown save after allowing two runs on a pair of hits in a 4-3 defeat.

However, since that rough outing, he has put together six straight scoreless appearances.

“He’s a competitor,” said manager Don Kelly. “He’s been in the big moments, played on really good teams, and I think that’s the one thing for me that stands out, he doesn’t let the moment get to him. He stays within himself and he knows what he’s trying to do when he goes out there and has for the majority of the season executed on that.”

Ferguson would not describe himself as a disciple of analytics.

But inevitably, as a player in today’s game, his meetings with team staff to go over game planning and performance assessments will often delve into that realm.

Ferguson is among baseball’s best in a number of departments, particularly in avoiding hard contact.

When making contact off him, opposing hitters are averaging an average exit velocity of 82.2 mph, which ranks in the 100th percentile of big-league pitchers, per Statcast.

Similarly, only 2.9% of balls put in play against Ferguson qualified as barrels — featuring an exit velocity of 98 mph.

In that regard, Ferguson ranks in the 96th percentile, while also posting strong figures (100th percentile) in fewest hard-hit balls (hit at least 95 mph).

“I don’t really pay a ton of attention to it, to be honest with you,” Ferguson said. “I just try to do my job, and that’s getting outs wherever they may fall. There’s 27 outs, and they’re all extremely important. The quickest way I can get three outs is how I’m going to do it. Punchouts and that kind of stuff are great, but I think I just try to get the out, not get the punchout. As a result for me so far, it’s been able to keep me in some good counts and keep the hitters on their heels.

“I just think the analytics and all that stuff is very important, but it’s more important with how you apply the analytics. I’ve been in places that apply them differently than here, there — everywhere’s a little bit different. But for me and where I’m at, I’m trying not to undervalue how much an out means to a Major League Baseball game.”

Ferguson owns a four-pitch repertoire: a four-seam fastball, slider, cutter and slider-curveball hybrid (slurve).

As far as utilization, Ferguson goes with a relatively even distribution.

He has thrown his fastball approximately 35% of the time, followed by the sinker (24%), cutter (23%) and slurve (19%).

“It’s not one pitch or one thing I’m relying on,” Ferguson said. “I’m just trying to stay ahead in counts, and I’m trying to stay out of hitters’ counts. I’m trying to apply as much pressure to the hitters as I can because it’s already really hard. When they’re behind in the count, it makes it that much harder.”

Entering this season, Ferguson brought 263 games of MLB experience with three clubs into the Pirates bullpen.

The Pirates being 15 games under .500 entering the final series of May is hardly territory Ferguson or anyone wants to be in.

Still, despite the team’s struggles, Ferguson has found reason to enjoy his new surroundings.

“It’s been great,” Ferguson said. “I think the young core and the talent that’s in the room is very exciting. There’s a lot more that’s behind that, too, so to be a part of it, watch these guys learn and figure out the major league, it’s been fun.”