Pirates prospects report: Blake Sabol is catching on in new role at Double A

ALTOONA, Pa. — Blake Sabol is an under-the-radar Pirates prospect, but he has some very high-profile friends.

Sabol’s second cousin is NFL Hall of Famer Troy Polamalu. “My mom used to babysit Troy,” Sable said. “I grew up a die-hard Steelers fan because I used to watch all the games with his dad.”

Angels pitcher/outfielder Michael Lorenzen is an old family friend who often gives Sabol pointers about playing pro ball. “He and my older brother played high school ball together. I was the bat boy,” Sabol said. “We used to call (Lorenzen) ‘Cowboy’ back in the day, so he’s still Cowboy to me.” 

Over the past couple of offseasons, Sabol’s workout partners have included Noah Syndergaard and Albert Pujols. “There are a lot of good players who live in Southern California, so I try to pick their brains,” said Sabol, who grew up in Aliso Viejo, Calif., about an hour south of Los Angeles.

Advertisement

The Pirates drafted Sabol in the seventh round in 2019 out of USC. After he signed his contract at PNC Park, Sabol went to dinner with one of his best friends from college, JuJu Smith-Schuster, a receiver with the Steelers at the time. 

“As we were walking around downtown, people saw JuJu and said, ‘Hey, dude, have a good season,’” Sabol said. “Hopefully, one day I can walk around Pittsburgh and people will recognize me as well.”

At Double-A Altoona, Sabol is batting .364/.391/.545 with two home runs and eight RBIs. He’s made seven starts at catcher — this figures to be his first full season in that role after a position change last year — and four as the designated hitter. “Double A is usually a big moment in a player’s career,” he said. “If you put up good numbers in Double A, one of the 30 (big-league) teams is bound to take a chance on you.”

Sabol, 24, was drafted as an outfielder and played all three spots at Low A in 2019. During spring training last year, he noticed the organization was low on catchers. (This was shortly after the Pirates acquired Endy Rodriguez and before they drafted Henry Davis with the top pick and traded for Carter Bins.) Seeing an opportunity, Sabol went to farm director John Baker and asked to play catcher.

“In all my years of baseball, I haven’t had anyone volunteer to play catcher,” Baker said. “I love that. All right, let’s do it.”

Sabol was a part-time catcher for three seasons at USC. He made the Perfect Game All-American team as a catcher and also caught for Team USA in the 2013 Pan Am Games. Yet, Sabol and Pirates management quickly realized his defensive skills behind the plate were sub-par.

“Growing up, I was always such (good) hitter that my coaches were like, ‘Yeah, you can catch if you want,’” Sabol said. “But I didn’t get pushed to learn (defense) as much as I could have. I probably could’ve pushed myself a little more, too, but I just loved hitting so much.”

Advertisement

When spring training ended last year, Sabol stayed behind at Pirate City to work on his defense. He was assigned to Low-A Bradenton at the end of May, but sustained a groin injury in just his third game. Sabol wound up batting .370 in 14 games with Bradenton and in July, he was promoted to High-A Greensboro. For the season, he batted a combined .310/.406/.551 in 66 games.

Tahnaj Thomas adjusts to bullpen gig

Over his first two seasons in the Pirates’ system, all 28 of Tahnaj Thomas’ outings were starts. This year, about a week before the end of spring training, Thomas was told he’d go into the season as a late-inning reliever.

It wasn’t a surprise, as Thomas had been stretched out to only three innings by the end of camp, but that didn’t ease his disappointment.

“I was kind of … not upset, but I was just kind of down about it,” Thomas said. “It took a few days to (deal with) it.”

The move is part of an organization-wide pitching paradigm shift. It’s evident at the big-league level, as Pirates starters have logged the fewest innings in the National League. At Altoona, three other pitchers with experience as starters — JC Flowers, Omar Cruz and Noe Toribio — have been used exclusively as bulk-inning relievers this year.

“I spoke to (manager) Kieran (Mattison) and spoke to my dad about it,” Thomas said. “Everyone told me it’s like when I went from (being) a shortstop to a pitcher — it might be a good way to the big leagues. You never know what can happen. I’m trying to make the best of it.”

Over five outings, Thomas has a 1.42 ERA and a 0.63 WHIP. As a starter last year at High-A Greensboro, he had a 5.93 ERA and a 1.58 WHIP. On Sunday, Thomas notched his first win of the season by getting the final four outs in a 5-4 comeback against New Hampshire. 

The new role might be at least part of the reason for Thomas’ improved command and control. He’s also learning how to get outs by dialing down his 100 mph fastball.

Advertisement

“Hopefully, we’ll get to see a lot of that later on this year,” Thomas said. “Right now, I’m just trying to be fluid and consistent, so if it’s 94, 95 or 96 mph, I’m fine with it. Whenever I need to turn it on later, it’ll still be there and I’ll let it go.”

Connor Scott lights up Eastern League

Altoona outfielder Connor Scott leads the Eastern League in batting average (.400) and on-base percentage (.489) and is fifth in OPS (1.089). He’s also cut down on his swing-and-misses after scuffling with a 21 percent strikeout rate last year when he was in the Marlins’ system.

Scott went into the season aiming to swipe more bases (he had 14 steals in 96 games last season) and draw more walks (his 7.1 percent walk rate last year was a career low). Over 11 games with Altoona, he already has three steals and a 12.8 percent walk rate. Better preparation and pitch recognition is driving Scott’s success.

“A lot of it is probably due to having more intent on what I’m going to do at the plate,” he said. “I already am a pretty solid contact hitter. Having a little something behind it now will help me out.”

During spring training, Scott showed off his Nike Adapts, a pair of self-lacing basketball shoes that automatically adjust to the shape of his feet.“Tighter, looser, you just push a button. It’s pretty slick,” Scott said. “I set them on a little charging board overnight.”

However, Scott’s electric shoes did not make the trip north with him to central Pennsylvania. “They are still back at my house back in Tampa,” Scott said. “I didn’t know how they’d do in the snow, so I left them behind.”

(Top photo of Blake Sabol: Josh Lavallee / Pittsburgh Pirates)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57kmtuam9nbHxzfJFrZmlsX2eDcLzIq5itnaNivbO70qmcnKyjYr%2BmvM6rq2aanJa4pnnSmpmopF2ewG6vwK2aoaGenHqwuoyipWamlax6s7vLnmSarF2ZvLauy55kmmc%3D