PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – His mindset was to continue to work, stay in the moment and never take a day off. Even as he saw other minor-league teammates get promoted, he stayed positive. Monday night, Pirates 2019 first-round pick Quinn Priester will get his chance, making his major league debut against Cleveland.
"It feels awesome, really excited," Priester said Sunday. "It's a culmination of a lot of years of hard work. Really excited to be here."
What is different with seeing Henry Davis, Nick Gonzales and Jared Triolo go before him is they all had college experience, where Priester came to pro ball straight from high school. He also had to deal with missing a season due to COVID, with his 2020 wiped out, he started in High A in 2021 with a 3.04 ERA in 20 starts.
The Pirates wanted to work on his delivery, so he didn't start the 2022 season until June 19 in Altoona and has made a steady 13-month progression to getting that shot in the majors. The timing of his opportunity may have been out of necessity due to injuries and ineffectiveness on the Pirates staff, but he was also pushing the door open. The right-hander had a 2.81 going 4-0 in May. Had one bad start in June leading to a 3.41 ERA for the month and on July 6th pitched a AAA career-high 7.1 innings giving up two runs. He only struck out three in that start, but it was part of an adjustment that he's been working this year where he stopped going for the strikeout and focusing on getting ground balls.
"The sinker has been the big pitch for me to be able to get ground balls in any count in any situation," Priester said to a group of reporters that included 93.7 The Fan's Dan Zangrilli and Josh Rowntree. "That's been a big pitch for me. The slider which I added during COVID has paired off that sinker extremely well and the curve ball has been the same since I was drafted. That's my best pitch. The change-up has gotten better this year, we've worked on that for a while and it's gotten a lot better. The four-seam is still trending up and we are excited about that."
He had no idea he was about to get the call, he made a start Friday for the AAA Indians. A sign he wasn't going to move with the Pirates having an open date on Monday, it didn't line up. During the first inning of work a ground ball went off his leg. When he got in the dugout after a scoreless inning, his manager said he was pulling him as a precaution. Priester couldn't believe it, he had fought through much worse. Then in the dugout during the game Miguel Perez told the team he pulled him because he was getting the call up.
"I FaceTimed my mom and she started flipping out," Priester said. "I called my dad and he didn't believe me (he thought he called him to say he was injured). Called my sister."
"Those phone calls I will remember forever."
"They've seen the ups-and-downs and everything in-between. To finally get that call to help this team win, it's what we've been working for years now. To see it be done, they realize how special of a moment for me."
He's glad he had the time since Friday to allow his family and friends to arrange travel to get from his native Chicago to PNC Park for the game. He thinks at least 30 will be there, but he's really not sure. Priester said he has already taken time to let it sink in. He will cherish the moment and says he appreciates all the people that allowed him to get to this point.
"I always thought I would be a professional baseball player, a big-league baseball player," Priester said. "As you are growing up you start to realize how hard that is. Then it came back around, 'oh crap I can really do this'. Just worked really hard at it, keep getting better and now we are here. It's the start of the new chapter of baseball for me."
Given two more of his former teammates Endy Rodriguez and Liover Peguero are also coming to the majors it appears now 11-games under .500 it's a start of a new chapter for the Pirates as well.
