One of the questions I commonly ask coaches, especially in the Minors, is “who am I not paying enough attention to?” It’s open-ended to give the coach a forum to talk up a guy who might be under the radar, turning a corner or is on the brink of something big.
On a rainy May afternoon in mid-May, I posed that question to Altoona Curve pitching coach Matt Ford. It didn’t take him long to think of his answer.
“Don’t fall asleep on Cam Sanders,” said Ford.
The conversation lasted about two minutes, ranging from why the right-handed reliever was nicknamed “the Colonel” (“You know, Sanders. It’s kind of a mentality. You’re the Colonel. Go finish the game.”) to the tweaks he’s made this year, most notably pitching from the third-base side of the rubber to give his breaking ball a better path to the strike zone.
In an organization full of pitching prospects, at the time, Sanders was a 28-year-old Minor League free agent who found himself in Double-A again after pitching parts of three seasons with the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate. Forget under-the-radar, that type of player usually isn’t anywhere near a radar, but Ford saw something.
“I think if he continues on this path, I could see him helping us in Pittsburgh at some point,” Ford said that day.
Shot: Called.
On Tuesday, the Pirates selected the contract of Sanders and promoted him to the Majors. The right-hander had been tearing up the Minors this year, recording a 1.91 ERA and 30.5% strikeout rate, including a sub-2 ERA in both Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis. He took that show to PNC Park on Tuesday, tossing two scoreless innings in his debut during the Pirates' 8-1 loss to the Giants.
His stuff is a big reason for that success. His fastball sits in the mid-90s and can ramp up a couple ticks from there. His cutter yielded a 54.1% whiff rate with Indianapolis. He has a high-spin slider and can kill that spin for extra drop on his sinker.
The stuff is there, it’s just playing up now after some tweaks and standing firm on the edge of the pitching rubber. There are a lot of people who made this call up to the Majors possible for Sanders, and Ford is definitely on that list.
“I need to give him a call, but I texted him and thanked him for everything,” Sanders said. “We put in a lot of work together in Altoona. That's a great dude right there. He really helped me keep my head in the game and not get discouraged being in Double-A after spending so much time in Triple-A the past couple years. He just really broke my mechanics down and helped me simplify things. I'm very thankful I got to work with him this year.”
The Pirates’ bullpen has been taxed lately and they have open roster spots after the Trade Deadline, so the last two months will be an opportunity for players to show what they can do. Sanders will be one of the first to do so.
There aren’t too many pitchers who would choose a path back to Double-A at this stage of their career, but the Pirates always presented the opportunity as wide open. There was no ceiling being placed on him.
Now, he finally has his chance in the Majors.
“It took a lot of patience,” Sanders said. “I mean, there’s always times where you want to doubt yourself and doubt your abilities, but I never really stooped down that low to where I was like, ‘I’m done with this.’ This is something that I’ve set out as a goal since I can remember.
“Once I got the opportunity with the Pirates, I felt like this was a good opportunity for me to showcase what I got and kind of like, get my foot in the door and kind of showcase and let 'em see what I got.”