Marlins’ Zach McCambley an ‘extremely coachable guy.’ Where he plans to improve in 2022
Zach McCambley isn’t at the point where he’s focusing on results.
Not yet, anyway.
At this point, the results don’t tell the full story.
The 22-year-old right-handed pitcher is preparing for his second season of professional baseball after the Miami Marlins drafted him in the third round of the 2020 MLB Draft out of Coastal Carolina. He’s still in a developmental phase of his career, still on an upward trajectory to fully understanding his ceiling.
McCambley’s goal at this point, after making 20 starts and getting promoted to Double A Pensacola for the second half of the 2021 season?
“Learning how to actually pitch instead of throw,” McCambley said Saturday after pitching 2 1/3 innings in a simulated game at the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium complex in Jupiter as part of the Marlins’ prospect development camp.
That means expanding his pitch mix beyond his fastball and curveball. That means a greater understanding the sequencing of his pitches. That means reading hitters’ swings and picking up on their tendencies.
He’s listening to any and all advice he can get from Marlins coaches and coordinators with the minor-league season set to start in a little less than two months.
“Just soaking it all in,” McCambley said. “I told them when they drafted me that I’m an extremely coachable guy, so I take a lot of pride in that. Just going to continue to keep being me and doing that.”
There are already signs of progress.
McCambley came into Saturday knowing he wasn’t going to throw his curveball, arguably his best pitch, in order to hone in on his changeup — a pitch he rarely used in live settings last season and a pitch he knows needs to improve to give himself a viable third option in his repertoire.
Again, progress and development over results.
“I’m just trying to try to make that more of an effective pitch for me this year,” McCambley said of the changeup. “Last year, it was kind of there but it really wasn’t. I just started throwing that pitch roughly a year ago. Just trying to get as many reps as I can in with that pitch and just perfecting it to where I’m confident enough throwing it as much as a fastball and curveball.”
It showed in his first matchup Saturday.
McCambley entered in relief to face outfielder JJ Bleday, who had hit a home run earlier in the game, with a runner on first base and two outs.
McCambley started the at-bat with an elevated changeup. Called Strike 1.
He followed with a precisely located low-90s fastball. Called Strike 2.
He then went back to the changeup, this time burying it below the strike zone. Bleday whiffed. Strike 3.
McCambley hopped off the mound and back to the dugout. He threw two more innings and threw a few extra pitches in the bullpen afterward to get up to 45 pitches on the day.
“We’re kind of easing into it a little bit,” McCambley said. “The workload’s starting to get a little heavier as we go.”
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