BRADENTON — After dropping by to see his parents, Lastings Milledge spent Wednesday night in the comfort of his own home.
Proximity is one of the positives of this newest wrinkle to his baseball career.
But Milledge doesn’t think it’s the only one.
“It was a good situation for me,” he said, “to go to a place where I can work back and get back to where I want to be.”
Milledge was dealt Tuesday from the Washington Nationals to the Pittsburgh Pirates as part of a four-player deal, a move that put the Lakewood Ranch High graduate, Palmetto native and Riverview resident right back into friendly confines.
He is wrapping a rehabilitation assignment — he was hit by a pitch in May and broke a finger, which Milledge said is 100 percent — with Pittsburgh’s Gulf Coast League team, which trains out of Bradenton’s Pirate City, and will spend the spring playing in front of family and friends at McKechnie Field.
Once his GCL stint ends, Milledge will report to the Pirates’ Triple A-affiliate in Indianapolis, after which the rest is up to him.
That’s the best part.
“All Neal (Huntington, the Pirates’ general manager) said was I control my own destiny,” Milledge said Thursday morning at Pirate City. “So whenever I’m ready, whenever I’m feeling good, whenever I’m putting up good numbers, I’ll be (with the Pirates). I’ve just got to work. I just got my swing back, and everything is feeling good right now.”
A first-round draft pick by the New York Mets in 2003, Milledge was dealt to the Nationals in November 2007. Appearing in a career-high 138 games, Milledge batted .268 with 14 home runs, 61 RBIs and 24 steals last season, taking advantage of his first full stab at big-league playing time.
Though he stumbled this year, batting .167 before the Nationals sent him to Triple-A Syracuse seven games into the season, 2008 armed him with confidence and know-how.
“It was real big, just knowing the fact that you can help a big-league club,” Milledge said. “I think a lot of people forget that that was really my first year. I made a lot of adjustments, struggled a little bit and learned how to fail and stuff like that. I think that was huge for my career.”
Milledge was 21 when he broke into the majors with the Mets in 2006, leading to a pair of tumultuous seasons that Milledge has chalked up as a learning experience, something he will apply to the rest of his career.
“I soaked up a lot of stuff, went through a lot of things,” he said. “If I ever go back to a big market, I know how to play. I know what it takes to be successful. I know how to handle myself when I’m going through failures, and if people boo me — I’ve been through all that. It’s only a plus.”
Right now, however, he is hoping to help to a help a Pirates team that has had a busy summer. Aside from dealing Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett to Washington in exchange for Milledge and reliever Joel Hanrahan, Pittsburgh has also moved outfielders Nate McLouth to Atlanta and Eric Hinske to the New York Yankees, while promoting homegrown talent such as Andrew McCutchen in an attempt to build toward a better future.
The Pirates’ hope is for Milledge to be part of what Huntington referred to as a “championship equation” while addressing the Pittsburgh media following Tuesday’s deal.
“I’ve just got to throw myself in the mix, because I know the physical tools and physical skills are there,” Milledge said. “I need a chance, like last year. I just need somebody to believe I can get it done and be patient, because I’m not a very good April, May guy. Sometimes that kind of hurt me. I just need time to play. There’s always going to be somebody breathing down your back, but to the extent where I still have a chance.”
Milledge believes the Pirates will give him that chance. And while playing in front of family and friends will be fun come the spring, getting such a chance could be the best part of being a Pirate.
“But I still have to do my part,” he said. “I’m just going to bring those tools they believe in.”
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