Ron Marinaccio Is Ready to Dominate in Yankees Bullpen While Living Out His Dream
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NEW YORK — Walking side by side down the right field line, stadium lights glistening off the pinstripes on their spring training jerseys, Aaron Judge draped his right arm over the shoulder of Ron Marinaccio.
The pitching prospect was sauntering back to New York's bullpen at George M. Steinbrenner Field between innings in a Grapefruit League exhibition game, unsure if he would be re-entering the contest later on or if he was done for the night.
Before the reliever and the right fielder split and went their separate ways—Judge jogging back to his natural habitat on the outfield grass for the top of the fifth frame—the star quipped with the right-hander about just how wild spring training games can be, with traditional rules bending to accommodate for re-entries and a surplus of substitutions.
Looking back on that moment a week later, a smile crept across Marinaccio's face. He could care less about an unorthodox outing, throwing six pitches in the fourth inning of an exhibition game.
What's wild and impossible for Marinaccio to process is the fact that a kid from Toms River, New Jersey, made his favorite team's Opening Day roster and will take a big-league mound for the first time while donning pinstripes.
It didn't hit Marinaccio that a promotion could be on the horizon until late last season. The right-hander, New York's No. 28 prospect per MLB Pipeline, was in the midst of a dominant campaign, posting a 2.04 ERA over 40 appearances as he worked his way up from Double-A Somerset to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Originally selected by the Yankees in the 19th round of the 2017 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Delaware, Marinaccio turned heads with a spectacular 14.25 strikeout-per-nine ratio in the minor leagues in 2021, his fourth professional season.
Added to the 40-man roster later that fall, Marinaccio was one call away from fulfilling his lifelong dream. He could hardly contain his excitement speaking about the prospect of breaking camp with the big-league club in an interview with Inside The Pinstripes earlier this spring.
"It's gonna be incredible," Marinaccio said, envisioning his debut at Yankee Stadium. "It was my dream as a kid to play professional baseball and to do it for the Yankees makes it 10 times better. I bet like 100 people from home will be there."
Before hearing the news from manager Aaron Boone that he had made New York's 16-man pitching staff, joining fellow prospects Clarke Schmidt and JP Sears on the big-league roster, Marinaccio had to prove himself on the mound this spring.
The hard-throwing righty wound up posting a spotless ERA across six Grapefruit League appearances, striking out six batters in 5.2 frames. He permitted five runs to score in a shaky outing against the Blue Jays early on in New York's slate of exhibition games, but an error behind him early in the frame kept his ERA at triple zeros.
Rather than getting rattled or dejected from a rocky performance, Marinaccio referred to that outing as a turning point, a learning experience facing Toronto's high-octane lineup. Pitching against the likes of Bo Bichette, George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Randal Grichuk (who whacked a grand slam off Marinaccio with two outs in the inning) showed the young hurler what will happen if he lets the game speed up around him.
Marinaccio allowed just one batter to reach against him for the rest of the spring, placing an emphasis on slowing the game down each time his number was called.
"I think the biggest thing is he's been willing to come in and attack the zone, which is a great starting point," pitching coach Matt Blake said of Marinaccio last month. "He's got a good fastball with some good characteristics and then he's obviously got a plus changeup. That's his bread and butter pitch. He's developed a sweeping slider, too. So he's kind of got a nice arsenal to go after the zone both right and left."
Marinaccio's three-pitch mix is about as filthy as it gets for a pitcher that's yet to make his big-league debut. As Blake mentioned, his changeup is his best pitch, an offering that drops off a table, fading away from left-handed hitters.
Everyone at Yankees camp raved about the pitch, vowing that it will translate to whiffs at the next level.
"His changeup is absolutely disgusting," fellow right-hander Stephen Ridings said. "I wish I could throw it. It's electric."
His slider, meanwhile, slices away from right-handed hitters, complementing his fastball (a pitch that touched 97.3 mph in his final outing of the spring this week).
"Came up to Triple-A out of nowhere last year with just really good stuff," catcher Max McDowell added this spring. "Velo's really playing up, changeup is plus-plus for a righty and now he's added a solid slider on top of that. On the mound, he carries a real calm demeanor that's almost like he's oozing confidence. I know I really love catching him and just that demeanor on the mound always gave me confidence."
Asked how he would describe his game for a fan that hasn't seen him pitch, Marinaccio said he's a guy that likes to mix things up with his three pitches on the mound, competing in the strike zone and always giving his all.
"I'm not going to be scared of anything," he said. "I'm not going to back off from a certain hitter or stuff like that. I feel like I have three elite pitches that I can throw whenever I want to."
That was the consensus at Yankees camp, leading up to Marinaccio's promotion. While this is a feel-good story, the latest Yankees fan to achieve his pinstriped fantasy, this reliever is on New York's Opening Day roster because he is ready to baffle big-league hitters and help this team win games.
"I feel like I'm ready for it," Marinaccio added. "Last year I felt like I was ready for it. In Scranton, I was on a nice run at the end of the year there and my mentality is the same as it was at the end of last year. Just every day, try and get a little bit better, prepare myself a little bit more for whenever that time does come. So whenever that time is, I can tell myself I'm as prepared as I am."
For Marinaccio, that time is now.
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(Photo of Ron Marinaccio: Courtesy of Somerset Patriots)
