Because it took about eight years for Mike Shildt to “graduate” out of extended spring training, his interactions with a young Skip Schumaker were limited to rehab assignments and what proved to be a painful transition from the outfield to the infield on the Cardinals’ back fields in Jupiter, Fla.
“I still have knots in my shin from it, for real,” the Marlins’ second-year manager said with a laugh Monday afternoon.
It wasn’t Shildt’s fungo that did the dirty work. No, Schumaker’s “baptism by fire,” as Shildt put it, saw coach Jose Oquendo essentially take the legs off a JUGS machine. That made Oquendo “the instigator” and Shildt simply the right-hand man as he fed baseballs into the machine and it in turn spat top-spun grounders one after another at Schumaker as he moved from the outfield to the infield in his late 20s.
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It’s an experience that shaped Schumaker as he began his coaching career with the Padres.
“I had a really good coaching staff that worked with me, that believed in me, and I felt that,” Schumaker said. “It wasn’t BS. Like I really felt that and always remember that as I’m managing and going through the coaching ranks. The player has to feel confident every single day coming into the ballpark and then playing in that game, and I always felt that with that group when I was transitioning, but yeah, it was tough, taking ground balls, literally out of a JUGS machine and they were bouncing off my shins and knees. …
“It was embarrassing. No one likes to be embarrassed on a Major League Baseball field. But I got through it, and I was grateful for it.”
Moving on up
Like Jeremiah Estrada, Adrián Morejón is finding himself in tighter and tighter spots.
The better he does, the more they come — and he certainly earned more opportunity with his performance on Monday.
The 25-year-old left-hander entered a 1-1 ballgame in the sixth inning, retired the side in order and sat down five straight batters before a two-out walk to Tim Anderson. While such occurrences have snowballed on Morejón in the past, this one was but a hiccup as he immediately fetched a groundball to run his scoreless streak to 8⅓ innings over his last four appearances.
Over that stretch, Morejón has struck out seven, walked two and not allowed a hit.
“He’s graduating, like Estrada has, to those higher-leverage spots, which are critical for them and obviously huge for us,” Shildt said. “And just trusting the stuff and good composure and letting it eat. Good fastball with a lot of life and good secondary pitches, and this guy’s got multiple weapons that are plus. He threw the ball exceptionally well in the sixth and seventh to keep it right there.”
The Padres’ ensuing seventh-inning rally and shutdown efforts from Yuki Matsui and Robert Suarez provided all the more reason for Morejón to be smiling in the clubhouse after the game.
It was his first win since 2022. After allowing seven runs in nine innings in the majors last year and spending most of 2023 at Triple-A El Paso, Morejón has a 28-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 21⅓ innings (2.08 ERA).
“Obviously after the type of year that I had last season, everything has been coming together for me this year,” Morejón said through interpreter Pedro Gutierrez. “Good outings, good appearances, good results, so I’m just trying to enjoy it and make the best of it and hopefully these good results continue to come.”
Padres first baseman Luis Arraez (4) and Miami Marlins shortstop Tim Anderson (7) chat at Petco Park on Monday, May 27, 2024 in San Diego.
(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Fun for Arraez
The procession was long and joyful as Luis Arraez greeted his former teammates before Monday’s game against the Marlins.
It was just the beginning of a good day for the newest Padre. That conversation starts with the win, for sure, but he was all smiles upon reaching first base with a hit off former teammate Trevor Rogers in the third inning. There, the hulking Josh Bell hugged him tightly him before Arraez took his lead.
“He’s a strong guy,” Arraez said. “A special person. Amazing.”
While his eyes are fixated on what’s ahead of him with the Padres, Arraez continues to have nothing but good things to say about the place he was traded from earlier this month, especially after taking Game 1 of the reunion series.
“That was fun, yeah,” Arraez said after going 1-for-4 and catching up with a few teammates at first base while in the field. “Facing Trevor Rogers, he’s an amazing teammate. Just facing Miami. I have a lot of good experiences there, a lot of good times there, especially with Skip Schumaker. He’s an amazing guy, an amazing manager. That one was exciting for me.”
