The long road to recovery: Joe Palumbo — and his organization — are on a mound mission

Derek Holland’s first 67 minor league innings, while solid and in some ways encouraging, didn’t pop quite enough to create headlines for the physically unimposing, 25th-round lefty who’d last pitched for a junior college whose modest enrollment doubled the number of folks living in the Hanceville, Alabama community.

It took two seasons for Joe Palumbo, a 30th-round pick out of a Long Island high school he didn’t play for, a school whose 1,500 students measured half the population of Hanceville, to rack up 62.1 innings.  Those innings, most of which were in relief, were solid and in some ways encouraging for Palumbo, physically unimposing and, as it would eventually play out, perhaps the most exciting left-handed pitching prospect the Rangers have developed since Holland.

Ten years after Holland arrived in Frisco, wrapping up a 13-1, 2.27 season at three levels that set the stage for a big league debut the following April, Palumbo made his own RoughRiders debut last night, also his third assignment of the season — and possibly a prelude to what could be a Major League arrival sometime in 2019.  Palumbo was brilliant, holding San Antonio to one run on three hits and one walk in five innings, fanning eight.  Facing AA hitters for the first time, he got 15 swinging strikes with a fastball that sat 93-95, a curveball that seemed to confuse the Missions, and a changeup that he used sparingly.

Palumbo soundly outpitched his mound opponent, fast-rising Padres prospect Chris Paddack, a 22-year-old from Austin who has been on a bullet train toward the big leagues.  The effort was nearly as dazzling at Holland’s August 2008 AA debut, when he scattered four Tulsa hits and one walk in eight frames, fanning 10 as he yielded only an unearned run.

“Joe came out aggressive and on the attack,” says Palumbo’s new manager, Joe Mikulik.  “He commanded the fastball on both sides of the plate.  He showed two curves, one to get ahead and another to put hitters away.  The poise and the tempo were outstanding.  Joe was ready for this.”

The one year (2009) that Holland showed up on Baseball America’s top 10 Rangers prospects list, the organization had engineered a bit of a pitching resurgence on the farm, recovering from the DVD (Diamond/Volquez/Danks) years that hadn’t met the hype.  The trio on whom Texas was pinning hopes was Holland, Neftali Feliz, and Martin Perez, and by the following year, BA included seven pitchers on its Rangers list of 10.  But behind Feliz and Perez, the fivesome of Tanner Scheppers, Kasey Kiker, Robbie Ross, Danny Gutierrez, and Wilmer Font didn’t do much, at least in Texas, and since then the Rangers have reassumed their long-held tradition of developing hitters with a far more reliable success rate than they have with their mound counterparts.

The organization is dedicating added resources and intensified purpose to its mission to get better at developing pitching.  “It’s a highly collective effort — all in,” says Rangers Assistant GM Jayce Tingler.  “From scouting, both amateur and pro, to pitching research and development, to our coordinators Danny Clark and Jeff Andrews, to our pitching coaches at every level, we have a development process and plan in place.”  That process includes the organization’s strength and conditioning program, Rehab Pitching Coordinator Keith Comstock, Senior Director of Medical Operations/Sports Science Jamie Reed, and the entire front office — with tremendous support, Tingler points out, from ownership.

That goes beyond a conceptual green light; the commitment is financial as well.  Director of Pitching Research & Development Todd Walther has held that newly-created position for two seasons.  The club has developed new ways internally to measure and utilize data and has reportedly checked in on the possibility of a working relationship with the innovative Driveline program based in Seattle.  Much is made of how young the Rangers’ everyday lineup is; the goal is for the pitching side to provide just as much hope.

There are encouraging signs.  Baseball America’s current Rangers top 10 list contains more pitchers (Hans Crouse, Cole Winn, Jonathan Hernandez, Palumbo, Yohander Mendez, and C.D. Pelham) than hitters, and that ranking rolled out before the club acquired Taylor Hearn from Pittsburgh.  Cole Ragans, a year behind Palumbo in his TJ recovery, could be back in that territory within a year, and Tyler Phillips and Yerry Rodriguez are making loud cases that they belong as well.

Palumbo shows up toward the back of the BA top 10 right now, but as last season got rolling he was on his way to a much higher position, and revving up alongside a fast track reminiscent of the one Holland was on a decade ago, just as the Rangers were set to go on a run of contention unprecedented for the franchise.

Until things, as is occasionally the case with pitching prospects, were put on hold.

For all the similarities Palumbo and Holland might share, there are many differences.  Palumbo’s path to AA wasn’t as linear.  He wasn’t allowed to pitch for St. John the Baptist in West Islip because his transfer to the private school cost him his senior year eligibility, and he ended up pitching instead for the Long Island Black Sox in a local men’s league, facing hitters who had played collegiately and in some cases professionally.  On the recommendation of area scout Takeshi Sakurayama, Texas used the 910th pick in 2013 to draft the lefty, luring him away from a commitment to San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas with a $32,000 signing bonus (extremely low for a high school player to forgo college for), and he posted an ERA north of 5.00 as a Rookie-league reliever his first summer.  But it wasn’t long before his transformation got underway.

“Joe’s background was totally different from Derek’s,” says Kip Fagg, the Rangers’ Senior Director of Amateur Scouting and the man responsible for drafting both lefties.  “But development-wise they were similar, both underdeveloped kids who made big jumps in velocity in short periods after signing.”  Holland’s bigger frame projected for more physicality than Palumbo stands to have, says Fagg, but Palumbo, at a similar stage of development, “spins the ball better, with similar velo and better angle.”

He’s also experienced types of adversity that Holland never did as a minor leaguer, and come out strong on the other side.  After staying back in extended spring training in both 2014 and 2015, Palumbo joined short-season clubs both summers (plus one season-ending appearance in 2015 for Low-A Hickory), with looks each year both as a starter and a reliever.  He was then assigned in 2016 to Hickory, where he settled in as the club’s closer.

Days before Texas traded his Crawdad teammates Dillon Tate and Erik Swanson (along with Short-Season A Spokane righty Nick Green) to the Yankees in a deal for Carlos Beltran, Palumbo was moved into the rotation.  He proved in seven starts (allowing more than two runs just once) to be just as effective as he’d been in short doses out of the bullpen.

At age 21, in what would have been his junior year in college had he not signed with the Rangers, Palumbo went into the off-season as perhaps the predominant helium guy in the system, having punched out more than 11 batters per nine innings for the season while walking less than a third as many.  He finished the season without allowing an earned run over his final 17 innings (.121/.188/.138).

Rangers Assistant Minor League Pitching Coordinator Jeff Andrews saw Palumbo mature from a 168-lb. teenager to a power pitcher who was able to carry his velocity deep into games after the wholesale shift to the rotation.  “Like most high school pitchers, Joe had to digest a significant amount of information and routines, plus move across country after he was drafted,” notes Andrews, a former Major League pitching coach.  “Pitchers learn and grasp concepts at different speeds.  Joe took some time to put into practice what he was being asked to do, but when he did it all came together quickly and successfully.”

And it unraveled — temporarily — just as quickly.  Asked to start High-A Down East’s first game ever and then two more Wood Ducks games after that to kick off the 2017 season (one earned run on four hits and four walks in 13.2 innings, with 22 strikeouts and an opponents’ slash line of .087/.160/.130), Palumbo walked off the mound in the fifth inning of that third start, after finishing off a second straight Potomac hitter with a swinging strike three.  He’d torn the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow, and would need Tommy John surgery.

The rehab process kept Palumbo out of action for one year, one month, and 29 days, until Texas gave him three Arizona League starts this June and then returned him to Down East, where he’d dominated before getting hurt.  Six Wood Ducks starts later, he was told he was going to AA.

“The main thinking with Joe was to give him a challenge,” says Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels.  “He’d been able to ‘out-stuff’ the competition in the Carolina League.  We felt better competition in Frisco should push him to be a little more fine.”

But it isn’t just about matchups, Daniels adds.  “It’s a long process coming back from surgery.  A lot of hard work, long days in Arizona.  If we’ve got a chance to reward someone for absolutely killing the program like Joe has, we want to do that.”

The lefthander wanted the challenge, especially given what he’s been through over the last year.  “This assignment means a lot to me,” Palumbo says.  “It was a long road to recovery, but I feel better and better each time I pitch off a mound.”

Wielding a fastball that sits 94-96 with late life, a curve that’s an out pitch and a separator for him, and a usable changeup — plus, according to Andrews, “a demeanor that is repeatable from outing to outing . . . good or bad, he treats each time he gets the ball as its own and is a very quiet competitor” — Palumbo has the ingredients to settle in as a mid-rotation starter in the big leagues.  For now, the job is to get Texas League hitters out and move one step closer to the ultimate goal.

“I’ll be facing more advanced hitters now,” says Palumbo, who set two hitters down on strikes in all but one inning last night — including punch-outs of Padres Futures Game delegate Buddy Reed (a Rangers draftee five rounds after Palumbo in 2013 who opted instead to play at the University of Florida) to both start and end his night on the mound.  “I have to be smarter, and execute better pitches.  I’ll stick to my normal game plan, and everything should work out just fine.”

It’s a mentality that sounds like that of another lefthander whose footsteps Palumbo follows in.  “The mindset is always there,” says Holland, a mid-rotation starter in his prime but author of the greatest post-season start in Rangers franchise history.  “Confidence is a huge part of it, just believing in yourself and knowing that you belong.  It’s all about motivating yourself and telling yourself you belong and, once you get there, trusting yourself.”

Holland’s next start for the Giants should come when Texas visits San Francisco this weekend.  Palumbo will be busy preparing for his second RoughRiders start, next week in Frisco.

Palumbo is already on the 40-man roster (the Rangers added him last winter, his first to be Rule 5-eligible, not willing to risk another team drafting him even though he was only halfway into his Tommy John rehab).  He will be in big league camp next spring, and this time not wearing Rehab Red.  The confident southpaw will be preparing for his first full season since 2016, the year he’d burst onto the radar.

There will be a buzz in camp about the young pitching the Rangers are developing, both in quality and quantity, and Palumbo, as a late-round, light-bonus, smallish pitcher who has bought into the plan — and one in whose development so many facets of the organization’s program have been involved, from amateur scouts to coaches and coordinators (including Comstock) to analysts to strength and conditioning specialists — is the embodiment of what the club is trying to do.

Tingler wasn’t on hand for Palumbo’s sparkling AA debut Wednesday night.  He’s instead been in Everett, Washington, watching Spokane take on the AquaSox behind promising starters Seth Nordlin, Ryan Dease, and, tonight, physically unimposing righthander Yerry Rodriguez, who’s perhaps been the Rangers’ breakout pitcher in 2018.  That was Palumbo’s title just a couple years ago at this time.

“Joe’s been throwing the ball extremely well as of late,” says Tingler.  “He’s feeling strong and his pitch quality continues to improve.  We felt he was ready for the challenge of AA.”  On one night, at least, it was fairly evident that they were right.

For Tingler, seeing a pitcher of Palumbo’s stature take the next step is evidence that the organization is doing just that itself.  “We’re a couple years into the process, and it’s evolving.  We’ve built a foundation, we hit the pause button, and continue to add more layers.  We want to be out front as far as technology and other resources go, to get ahead of things, to get our pitchers assessed in every way we can and build off of that.”

The endgame is no secret, Tingler says.  “The objective is to develop well-rounded big league starting pitchers.  We know we have to be patient, and disciplined to the plan.”

Bringing a pitcher back from surgery — particularly one with Palumbo’s upside for a franchise that knows it must get better developing its own pitching — is a painstaking process, one that takes precision and restraint, both from the organization and the player.  Tingler believes everything is in its right place as far as Palumbo’s restoration is concerned, even if it hasn’t been as smooth a path as Holland’s was a decade before him.  “We’ve had a number of innings in mind that we wanted to get Joe to in order for him to be in a great spot for 2019.  We are currently on pace.  This is where we want Joe to be.”

It’s also where Palumbo wants to be himself — for now — and it’s emblematic of where the Rangers are committed to getting themselves as they continue moving forward on a long road, a road that may not be without its detours and speed traps, but that points in the direction of a certain destination and adamant purpose: to develop depths of big league pitching that they can win with.

EXIT VELO

• In its “Minor Leaguers with Major League Tools” feature, Baseball America asked minor league managers and their coaching staffs to weigh in on the best players they’ve seen this season.  A number of Rangers prospects were recognized, including three Frisco pitchers: right-handed starter Jonathan Hernandez (singled out as having the best breaking ball in the Carolina League, before his promotion from Down East); left-handed reliever C.D. Pelham (best fastball in the Texas League, and best reliever in the Carolina League before he was promoted); and right-handed reliever Wei-Chieh Huang (best changeup in the Southern League, before coming to Texas in the Jake Diekman trade with Arizona).  Down East outfielder Leody Taveras was voted as the best defensive outfielder and best outfield arm in the Carolina League, and his Wood Ducks teammate, shortstop Anderson Tejeda, was judged to have the league’s best infield arm.  Hickory righthander Joe Barlow was named the South Atlantic League’s best reliever.  Only full-season leagues were surveyed.
• While Hickory center fielder Bubba Thompson wasn’t recognized, he’s in the midst of a tremendous second half and an outstanding first full season as a pro.  The 2017 1st-rounder has hit .335/.382/.500 over the last two months, with 21 stolen bases in 42 games over that span.
• The Rangers’ ninth-round pick from two months ago, Wichita State righthander Chandler Sanburn, retired after making nine relief appearances for Spokane (7.45 ERA).  The 23-year-old had signed for $15,000 in what was a $148,300 slot.

Photo credit:  Dave Michael/San Antonio Missions