Pittsburgh Pirates: Bradenton Marauders Dominant Closer

The Pittsburgh Pirates have seen numerous power arms come into their system.  Furthermore, they have especially built up a stockpile of power bullpen arms across the minors.

The Pittsburgh Pirates 2015 draft has been headlined by the likes of Kevin Newman, Kevin Kramer, and Ke’Bryan Hayes.  However, they also drafted six college pitchers in the top 10 rounds in that draft.  One of those players is the Bradenton Marauders current closer, and he is performing at a high level.

Draft Year

Seth McGarry was an eighth round pick out of Florida Atlantic University.  From the get go, McGarry was considered a projectable back end of the bullpen type arm.  Still, the Pittsburgh Pirates are the type of organization to give their young pitchers a chance to start before converting them to a more limited bullpen role.  The Bucs allowed McGarry to start games in 2015 in the Gulf Coast League and for the Short-Season West Virginia affiliate.  He started 12 games and posted 3.88 ERA in those starts.  The Bucs decided to stick McGarry in the bullpen to start the 2016 season and he has been there since.

2016

McGarry pitched out of the bullpen for the Low-A West Virginia Power for all of 2016.  He did not have great success in his transition.  Part of that could be due to the fact he had never pitched out of the bullpen prior to 2016.  At Florida Atlantic, he was used as a starter, and as stated earlier, he started all his appearances in 2015.  So the fact that he was pitching in a new scenario could have caused his numbers to inflate some.  For the Power he posted an ERA of 3.79 in 59.1 innings pitched.  He also claimed nine saves, but did blow four of his 13 opportunities. He did strike out one batter per inning pitched over the season, but also was averaging over four walks per nine innings.  Still, not a terrible first full professional season.  McGarry has a fastball that touches 97, so if he could show better command of it down the road he could reach that back end of the bullpen potential.

2017

So far in 2017 he has seemed to be much more comfortable pitching out of the bullpen. So far, McGarry has thrown 31.1 innings and has made appearances in 23 games.  He once again is averaging just about one strikeout per inning by sitting down 31 in his 31.1 innings pitched.  He has also shown better command dropping his walks per nine innings to 3.73 on the year. McGarry has pitched so well this year that he was a Florida State League All Star.  This is mainly because he has converted all eight of his save opportunities while posting an ERA of 1.15.

Next: A Look at prospect Travis MacGregor

The Florida Atlantic product still has ways to go before he is big league ready.  However, being 23 years of age already, he should get the call to Double-A very soon. The biggest questions for the right hander going forward?  One would be if he will continue to show better command as he moves up the minors.  As Pittsburgh Pirates fans saw with Tyler Glasnow, command issues can really hurt a pitcher no matter how good his stuff might be.  The other question is whether or not McGarry’s secondary pitches will be good enough to get by at a higher level.  McGarry relies heavily on his mid-to-high 90s fastball now.  To have success at the next level he will need another offering.