Kevin Gorman: Oscar Marin on mission to help Pirates pitchers understand analytics

BRADENTON, Fla.

Oscar Marin is a man on a mission, one that looked impossible last summer: rescue and revive the pitching staff of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

As pitching coach, the 37-year-old Marin has brought old-school values and new-age ideas to the Pirates in ways Ray Searage either couldn’t or wouldn’t.

First and foremost, Marin is building bonds with and gaining the trust of the entire pitching staff by communicating with confidence in both a bilingual and personable way.

Where he is making an instant impact is by combining his background in biomechanics with his understanding of analytics to present to pitchers how to understand the ways movement and metrics affect their performance.

No wonder Pirates manager Derek Shelton called Marin’s methods “extremely important,” knowing his choice of pitching coach was perhaps his most critical hire.

“He’s been outstanding,” Shelton said Saturday at Pirate City. “You can rave about how he started to communicate from the time he got the job till now. But even in his one-on-one meetings and talking to pitchers about the use of information, how we’re going to use it and apply it, if you don’t have someone who can do that, then we’re behind. I think we have someone who not only understands it but is really good at it.”

Searage wasn’t, which is why he was fired along with Clint Hurdle last fall. The Pirates are counting on Marin to bring them out of the dark ages and into the 21st century with the understanding and use of analytics and technology.

They are using Rapsodo tracking devices for precise looks at pitches and high-speed Edgertronic video cameras for bullpen sessions. They are talking about pitch tunneling — where two different pitches are designed to follow the same trajectory long enough to confuse a batter and keep him guessing — and, more importantly, explaining the analytics. Marin has turned teacher in team meetings, making it into more of a classroom setting.

But he’s inviting it to be a back and forth.

“We started with letting these guys know what that information is, what they’re going to see out there,” Marin said. “The worst thing we wanted to do was put stuff out there, then they were going to ask questions, ‘Why is all this out there? How is it going to help me?’ …

“Now, they’re asking questions. That’s exactly what we want.”

That Marin, of Mexican-American heritage, can speak English and Spanish fluently is another bonus. Previously, the Latin pitchers relied on former bullpen coach Euclides Rojas to serve an an intermediary to Searage. Now, they can speak candidly with Marin in their own tongue.

“I’m already seeing a huge difference,” said Mike Gonzalez, the Pirates coordinator for cultural initiatives and interpreter for Spanish-speaking players. “Not only being bilingual but being so intentional and relatable has helped him connect with the ballplayers. He knows his stuff and is so confident when he delivers a message that it helps them buy into it.”

No matter the language, Marin and his staff are providing feedback in layman’s terms, teaching pitchers how to analyze and adjust with the information so they can incorporate it. What reliever Kyle Crick likes is how it’s presented as suggestion.

“It’s pretty much like, ‘Here. This is what everybody else has. This is what they’re going to look at, and this is how we analyze it. You can use it if you want.’ It’s knowledge that isn’t forced,” Crick said. “I’m used to the lack of the knowledge.”

If that isn’t an indictment of Searage, I don’t know what is.

The Pirates can’t afford a repeat of last season, when they ranked 26th in the majors and next-to-last in the National League with a 5.18 ERA. When the young staff struggled, Searage had neither the answers nor the analytics to help them solve their struggles.

Marin’s interest in movement dates to his days at Arkansas-Little Rock, where he pitched and studied exercise and sport science. As minor league pitching coordinator with the Seattle Mariners in 2017, Marin worked closely with bullpen coach Brian DeLunas and completed a biomechanics certification with Greg Rose’s On Base University.

Now, the student has become the professor.

“I wanted to teach players to maximize their abilities,” Marin said, with a smile, “in ways that I couldn’t.”

The Pirates want him to teach their pitchers to do so in ways his predecessor didn’t. When it comes to analytics and technology, Marin is making it his mission to have Pirates pitchers all speaking the same language.

Now he needs to get them to pitch fluently.