Pablo Lopez’s success in 2020 goes beyond stats. Marlins believe it will carry into 2021
Pablo Lopez didn’t expect to be put into the position he found himself in last year. He was the Miami Marlins’ No. 4 starter in their pitching rotation, trying to keep pace in an organization filled with up-and-coming pitching talent.
But as he and the Marlins would soon find out, things rarely went as planned during the 2020 season.
The first starters in the Marlins’ rotation were part of the team’s 18-player contingent that tested positive for COVID-19 three games into the shortened 60-game season. Two, Sandy Alcantara and Jose Urena, missed a month of the two-month season. The third, Caleb Smith, was shipped to the Arizona Diamondbacks at the trade deadline as part of the Starling Marte deal.
All of a sudden, a 24-year-old Lopez — with all of 31 career starts and 170 innings pitched at the major-league level — was the Marlins’ most experienced starting pitcher for the bulk of the season.
“Lopie was our guy,” pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. said Tuesday, reflecting back on last season. “And he stepped up.”
The numbers certainly show that. Lopez was the only Marlins pitcher to make every scheduled start in the shortened season, taking the mound in all 11 games in which he was scheduled to play. He had career-best marks in ERA (3.61), walks and hits per inning (1.19), strikeouts per nine innings (9.26), hits allowed per nine innings (7.85) and home runs allowed per nine innings (0.63). during that small sample size of a season as well. His performance was a key reason the Marlins surprised most of baseball and clinched their first playoff berth since 2003.
But Lopez’s success in 2020 goes beyond the statistics. His maturation mentally, his increase in self-confidence, his understanding of just how big of a role he plays in this team’s outlook far supersede what took place over 60-some innings last season.
“It just made me go to the field and show up on the mound with confidence,” Lopez said Friday after his third spring training start of 2021. “I would say it was one of the silver linings of last year, knowing that you can trust your guys and trust your stuff and go on the mound and give 100 percent that day.”
‘It clicked for him’
Stottlemyre and manager Don Mattingly saw incremental growths in Lopez as 2020 unfolded. It started during summer camp, the pseudo-spring training following MLB’s nearly fourth-month shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. His command was better than ever. The determination to succeed was undeniable. Progress seemed imminent.
“It’s like it clicked for him,” Mattingly said.
But the most telling moment, at least to Stottlemyre, was after Lopez’s biggest failure of the season.
Sept. 9. Facing the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park.
Lopez gave up a career-high seven earned runs in 1 2/3 innings during what ultimately became a 29-9 Marlins loss. All nine batters he faced in the second inning either reached base or drove in a run, with Travis d’Arnaud punctuating Lopez’s brief time on the mound with a 393-foot, three-run home run to left-center field.
The moment, isolated from everything else, was rough.
But look beyond the outing. Look at how Lopez responded.
Unlike in previous seasons, when Stottlemyre said it would sometimes take Lopez multiple outings to rebound, he was back to his normal self five days later.
“You have to be able to turn the page,” Lopez said. “You have to have a short memory. You can’t control the previous pitch, but you can control the next one.”
Lopez’s final three starts of the regular season: A 3-0 record, three earned runs allowed in 17 1/3 innings (a 1.56 ERA), 19 strikeouts and just five walks. That included five shutout innings against the Braves on Sept. 24 in a rain-delayed outing.
Remove the Sept. 9 game from Lopez’s total, and his 2020 ERA drops more than a full point, from 3.61 to 2.59.
“In some people’s eyes, maybe things unraveled a little bit for him,” Stottlemyre said, “but I really looked at that situation and how he handled it. He kept making pitches. He stayed in the zone. He didn’t get away from his game plan. That was a big hurdle for him.”
Adding to his arsenal
Lopez’s success comes when he’s keeping things simple and keeping his mind clear. Lopez is a cerebral pitcher and admits he has a tendency to overthink his approach at times.
The same applies when he’s tinkering with his pitching arsenal.
Lopez and Stottlemyre are working to enhance his breaking ball this spring to give him a steady fifth pitch to go along with his four-seam fastball, sinker, cutter and changeup.
The initial plan according to Stottlemyre was to transition the cutter into a slider, but there were too many moving elements. They nixed that idea after a couple bullpen sessions.
Instead, Lopez’s breaking ball now has elements of both a curveball and a slider, but Lopez doesn’t want to call it a “slurve,” the common name for a pitch that combines the tendencies of the two breaking pitches. It’s just one more term to think about.
Instead, Lopez focus more on the execution of the pitch. Making sure it has the right spin rate, the right shape and that it’s landing where he wants it to land.
The key, Lopez said, is in his wrist.
“Sometimes with a breaking ball,” Lopez said, “you don’t want to snap your wrist, but the breaking ball we’re trying to work with, we’re trying to snap it a little bit and get the right angle for the rotation.”
The next step
Lopez projects as the Marlins’ No. 2 starter behind likely Opening Day pitcher Alcantara and will play a vital role on a young starting pitching staff expected to be the Marlins’ strength this year.
After showing promise over the shortened season, Lopez’s goal is to have that transition over into the 2021 season. He’s looked sharp so far in spring, giving up just one run in nine innings with six strikeouts against one walk while having command of all of his pitches.
“This guy turned a corner,” Stottlemyre said. “He’s matured a lot. He’s believing in himself. His teammates are excited when he takes the ball every five days.
“We believe in him.”
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