It’s always helpful when a player and coach line up on verbiage. And given that Barons pitching coach John Ely and prospect Jairo Iriarte have different first languages, they get surprisingly close on describing the latter’s on-field demeanor.
Ely describes Iriarte as “an ax murderer” on the mound, and the 22-year-old right-hander made no attempt to depict himself as a humanitarian between the lines.
“My mind is like, I want to kill you,” Iriarte said via interpreter. “In the way that I just want to strike you out. You are not my friend. I don’t know you. You are my rival. That’s the mindset I have.”
This may very well be the animating force that has gotten Iriarte from a $75,000 international signee out of Venezuela to the fringes of top-100 prospect lists. And his homicidal competitiveness may yet allow him to transcend reliever risk and a 10 percent walk rate to be an effective major league starter. It’s also what Ely sees at work when Iriarte gets out of his mechanics and starts overcooking pitches, sparking blowup stretches that have the surface level results of his ERA (4.34) sitting well above his general ability to avoid hard contact shown by his FIP (3.74).
Upon acquiring Iriarte in the Dylan Cease trade in March, Chris Getz talked up his long-term ceiling due to all the untapped potential that lay in his athleticism, unique approach angles and already compelling raw stuff, while also hinting that he could make his major league debut this year.
Yet the rosy outlook for his 2024 performance is that this is what Iriarte is capable of doing on the strength of his talent and murderous intentions. Brian Bannister has said the White Sox have held off on any significant changes to Iriarte’s arsenal, delivery, fastball shape, or even specific tweaks to add depth to his secondaries that he has in mind. Iriarte said the initial sudden adjustment to a new organization in spring was a challenge, and the Sox have been content to dedicate this season to Iriarte acclimating and building up his innings base, as he’s already a start away from setting a new professional career-high.
“I've been trying to develop my slider a little bit more, that has been one of my main focuses this year, trying to get that pitch better,” Iriarte said via interpreter. “I am more consistent throwing that pitch in the strike zone. I’ve been able to backdoor it to lefties or front door righties. It’s been more about consistency. That’s a step forward.”
Even after his mid-season visit to Chicago to throw in front of Sox officials, this is Iriarte’s answer on the big area of development this season. He even described the current state of his changeup as “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”
With a pair of double-digit strikeout performances this season and Iriarte now having taken part in a no-hitter against a Reds affiliate for the second straight year, some of the ceiling the White Sox envisioned has been on display, even if the great developmental leap forward for his profile still feels like it’s an offseason away. If 2024 is all about what Iriarte can accomplish through determination, his observation is that it’s brought him pretty close to his dreams.
“Being in the clubhouse, the feeling is that you’re very close to actually being there,” Iriarte said via interpreter of his visit to Chicago. “It was good for us to work on the things we needed to work on and show them, and that they wanted to show us too.”
Nashville 5, Charlotte 3
- Dominic Fletcher went 3-for-4 with two doubles and a walk.
- Lenyn Sosa, 1-for-4 with a K.
- Oscar Colas went 1-for-3 with two sac flies and a strikeout.
- Edgar Quero was 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
- Bryan Ramos went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.
- Zach DeLoach was 1-for-4 with a K.
- Sean Burke: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP, 14 of 37 pitches for strikes.
- Dominic Leone is rehabbing: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K
Notes:
*Justin Jirschele told me before the game that Davis Martin indeed would've been able to start the fifth when a rain delay limited him to four innings and 64 pitches on Saturday. He would've been allowed to throw in the neighborhood of 80 pitches in his next step building up his workload after Tommy John surgery.
*To the extent that Burke had a comfort pitch, it was his slider, because his fastball was out of control. Alas, he's probably not accustomed to throwing it when he absolutely needs a strike.
*The Knights lost two potential runs on bad sends. Dominic Fletcher was thrown out at home here ...
... and Bryan Ramos was given a stop sign he didn't expect, and had to slide in order to scramble back to third. Ramos got a great break on a flare to left, and I was also surprised when he was told to hold.
*Ramos had an at-bat interrupted by two Prelander Berroa warm-up pitches from the Charlotte bullpen that rolled through the infield, all the way to the batboy in the third-base dugout.
Winston-Salem 3, Bowling Green 2
- Eddie Park went 0-for-4 with an HBP.
- Loidel Chapelli was 0-for-4 with a walk and a strikeout.
- DJ Gladney wore the collar and silver sombrero.
- Wes Kath went 0-for-3 with a K, and was caught stealing.
- Calvin Harris was 1-for-3 with a walk.
- Samuel Zavala singled, walked twice and struck out once.
- Peyton Pallette: 2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 WP, 24 of 34 pitches for strikes.
Charleston 7, Kannapolis 5
- Rikuu Nishida went 1-for-4 with a walk.
- Ronny Hernandez struck out thrice during an 0-for-5 night.
- George Wolkow tripled, singled and struck out twice.
- Ryan Burrowes went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts.
ACL Mariners 6, ACL White Sox 2 (6 innings, rain)
- Abraham Nunez went 1-for-3 with a strikeout.
- Adrian Gil was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
- Stiven Flores, 0-for-3.
- Javier Mogollon walked once and struck out twice.
- Luis Reyes: 2.1 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
