Pirates News - Spring training notebook: Johnson's big day, Suwinski, and more

Pirate batters hit the ball hard in a loss, Roansy Contreras flashes improved fastball velocity, and more notes from around baseball in today's Spring Training notebook

The Pittsburgh Pirates third game of spring training in 2024 didn't result in a Buccos win but it will be one that Pirates fans will remember fondly for the performance of 19-year-old second baseman Termarr Johnson.

In the Pirates 8-4 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday afternoon, Johnson was 2-for-2 in the game with a pair of home runs while driving in three. Both of the 19-year-old's home runs were demolished into right field and even more impressively, both came off established major league relievers in Yimi Garcia and Genesis Cabrera.

It was also a game in which right handed starter Roansy Conteras flashed some quality velocity with his fastball sitting around 95.2 mph for the afternoon while topping out at 96.2 mph. You can read more about Monday afternoon's loss to the Blue Jays, here.

The Pirates now 0-3 on the season, will look to pick up their first win of the spring on Tuesday afternoon as they host the Atlanta Braves in Bradenton. Offseason pickup Marco Gonzales will make his spring training debut for the Buccos while Chris Sale will make his Braves debut. Sale was traded to the Braves this offseason after spending the last handful of seasons in Boston with the Red Sox. 

With it being an away game, the Braves will likely send a lighter lineup than what should be expected most of this season. It might even be weaker than expected as well since the Braves did start what will likely be their opening day lineup on Monday.  The game will not be televised but can be listened to on 100.1 FM/KDKA-AM 1020. 

NOTES FROM BRADENTON

Outside of yesterday's game recap, be sure to also check out the Pirate bobblehead promotions schedule for 2024 as well as Noah Wright's piece on three pitchers who enter the spring out of options, and could become available to pursue via waivers.

Over on MLB.com, Pirates beat writer Alex Stumpf had a piece on Monday regarding outfielder Jack Suwinski who hopes to become a more consistent player for the Pirates this season.

Last season, Suwinski put up 26 home runs while knocking in 74 but did so on a .224/.339/.454 slash and through his first 250 career games in the Major Leagues, has only hit to the tune of .215/.322/.436 over his first career 906 plate appearances.

The Pirates as a whole have been hitting the ball hard so far this spring. On Monday against the Blue Jays, out of the 10 hardest-hit balls by either team, six were from the Pirates including five of the top seven. Henry Davis had the hardest batted ball of any Pirate with a 108.9 mph line drive out. Termarr Johnson's pair of home runs were the third and fourth hardest-hit balls of the game as well at 104.1 and 103.1 mph. Tsung-Che Cheng had a 101.2 mph single in the eighth inning while Edward Olivares had a 101.1 mph ground out in the fourth.