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SACRAMENTO — There are command issues for sure, which can frustrate. A player who is used to Major League Baseball life is going through a long rehab assignment in Triple-A. There are reasons for potential annoyance.
But Tyler Beede feels good. He does not need to look far to appreciate exactly how important that is.
The Giants’ starter in the wings, building up as he returns from Tommy John surgery, is friendly with Noah Syndergaard, whom he worked out with at Cressey Sports Performance.
They have talked frequently since spring training as they both retook the mound and were on similar timetables following March 2020 procedures. They last exchanged updates a few weeks ago, but since that chat, the Mets star was shut down until July with inflammation in his elbow.
“My body feels great as a whole. I don’t have any pain, any limitations, any restrictions — which is great, man,” Beede said Monday from Sutter Health Park, the River Cats’ home. “You look at some other guys throughout this process … it allows me to have perspective about how I feel right now, and I’m super grateful.”
The stuff is there, even if the command isn’t quite, and Beede is confident it will all return. Before his elbow flared up in spring training in 2020, he looked like the breakout pitcher Kevin Gausman, Drew Smyly and Anthony DeSclafani have been with the Giants since.
His velocity was upper-90s, ticks up from where he left off in the 2019 season. That would help his changeup, maybe his best pitch, play even better. He had a curveball and slider he was honing while showing glimpses of the potential that made him the No. 14-overall pick out of Vanderbilt in 2014.
He is viewing this rehab assignment as a spring training in which he is focusing on feel and mechanics and not results, but a fastball that is hitting 96-97 mph is a result he will take.
“To see the velocity kind of at where it was before surgery, maybe even a little better, has been great,” said the 28-year-old, who went down shortly before the coronavirus took hold in the United States. “The feel for my offspeed pitches, it kind of comes and goes — same thing with the feel for my mechanics and my delivery right now. … It’s the last thing to come is that feel, that rhythm and everything with your mechanics and command. But I’m pretty happy with it.”
He is less happy with the walks. In his last outing, on Sunday, he chalked up six in just three innings and hit two batters in three innings. There have been 12 walks in his past 7 2/3 innings, and apart from the inherent problem with a lack of command, a quickly rising pitch count is not allowing him to stretch out as much as he and the Giants want. To be ready to throw five or six innings in his 2021 debut, he would need to check off that inning count in the minors.
And yet, he felt more “in control” in his Sunday outing, which will not show up in a box score.
“I felt like I was making convicted pitches, but the ball just wasn’t really going where I wanted it to go. That’s part of it,”said a shaggy Beede, who let his hair grow out during the pandemic. “But I would say overall, I’m really happy with everything.”
“Everything” includes a slightly different pitch mix. His curveball has gotten “a little harder” he said, and can sweep like a slider. It traditionally is more of a 12-6, bottom-falls-out offering, but now its horizontal movement is also part of the issue with perfecting its command, Beede said — he’s learning how to aim a pitch that is moving differently. His slider itself, which had taken on more prominence in 2019, has been mostly pushed aside.
He has been with Sacramento nearly a month, but his rehab assignment could be extended through a Tommy John loophole: Pitchers recovering from the surgery can request an extra 10 days three times after the first 30 days of the assignment are finished. The Giants do not have an immediate rotation need, so they could afford to allow him to keep working at that level.
The plan, the Giants have said, is still for Beede to be a starter, and he has shown high-octane stuff in the past even if it was never put all together. He said he’s open to any role, though.
Of course, without command, discussing his fit is premature.
“We know that that level of command — the good command — is in there,” Gabe Kapler said recently.
Beede believes it will come and knows that it is the biggest obstacle for so many Tommy John survivors in their first season back. He feels good, and the stuff is good, even if it’s a work in progress. He’s on the right track.
“I would like to perform and go out there and dominate,” Beede said, “but I think that’s right around the corner.”