Spring training returns to Bradenton and Ivan Nova is the newest Pirate to watch

For the first time in three years, the Pirates begin spring training in Bradenton with diminished expectations.

After win totals of 94, 88 and 98 from 2013-15, the team suffered through a sub-.500 campaign in 2016 and followed that with a quiet offseason that has left Pittsburgh as an afterthought in the National League for the first time in five years. The Pirates find themselves in the strange purgatory between rebuilding and contending. Retooling may be the apt phrase for it.

Pittsburgh began to retool midway through last season, when it shipped out some underachieving pieces and hauled in some fresh faces. Ivan Nova, who came over from the Yankees, was supposed to be one of the incoming parts to get the Pirates back to the postseason, but his first season in Pittsburgh ended with team disappointment. Even so, with the choice to leave in free agency, Nova opted to return.

“We’re going to just try to put it together as a group,” Nova said. “We’ve got a lot of things to prove. We have a really young team but are capable to do a lot of good things out there.”

Nova was one of the first players to arrive at Pirate City on Monday as pitchers and catchers reported for a day of physicals ahead of the team’s first official workout Tuesday. He also qualifies as the product of one of Pittsburgh’s most high-profile offseason moves — a three-year deal to bring back the right-handed pitcher — and for the first time since 2009 he will be spending spring training somewhere other than Tampa.

Nova signed with the Yankees in 2004 and until midway through the 2016 season, when he was traded to the Pirates, he had only briefly been with another organization when the Padres claimed him in the 2008 Rule 5 draft and brought him to spring training in 2009. When he failed to make the major league team, he was sent back to New York.

Basically everything has changed since that strange spring. Nova wouldn’t make his MLB debut until a year later, and in the seven years since, he’s blossomed from a precocious rookie into one of the anticipated veteran leaders on Pittsburgh’s pitching staff.

“You go out and you’re kind of nervous,” Nova said of his brief stint with San Diego, “but the time that I spent in New York I got used to the superstars really quickly. Out of the 25 guys, we have 20 superstars.”

He forged a bond with CC Sabathia as he grew older and followed Andy Pettitte around like a doting puppy during his first days with the organization. Nova just turned 30 last month, but he’s still one of the Pirates’ oldest starting pitchers at spring training, and after a resurgent second half in Pittsburgh last summer, he’s all but a lock to make the rotation.

Nova attributed his bounce-back second half to the change of scenery — specifically the different philosophies in Pittsburgh. He won 16 games during his second year with the Yankees and spent the next spring scrapping for a spot in the rotation. New York keeps a short leash on its pitchers, and for those who came into the majors with little fanfare, like Nova, it can mean almost no job security.

“I was relaxed (with the Pirates) Nova said. “No matter what happens, you’re going to have another start. In New York, sometimes you don’t have that. Sometimes if you have a bad game, you’re either in the bullpen, you’re in the minors, they’re going to skip you. They do something. It’s the way they do it.”

Nova bounced back and forth between the bullpen and rotation last season with the Yankees, putting up a 4.90 ERA. When he arrived in Pittsburgh, his spot as in the rotation was assured. He started 11 times, posting a 3.06 ERA with 52 strikeouts. After walking 25 batters in 97 1/3 innings with New York, Nova walked only three during his 64 2/3 in Pittsburgh.

Nova felt less pressure to be perfect, both because of the Pirates’ patience and because of PNC Park. No longer were mistakes always leaving the ballpark if they became fly balls down the left- or right-field lines.

A return to the postseason in Pittsburgh hinges on the uncertainty of comeback campaigns for some of the Pirates who disappointed in 2016, but also on players like Nova — those who are always steady until they aren’t. If Nova can replicate the second half of 2016 in 2017, Pittsburgh should find itself in a good place.

“Hopefully we can put it together, get to know each other every day and we’ll be better,” Nova said. “Help each other out, hopefully make it to the playoffs and then go from there.”

Notable:

• Josh Bell was one of the position players to make an early arrival Monday. The corner infielder, who is in position to take over as Pittsburgh’s every day first baseman this summer, injured his left knee last month and had a small procedure to remove a loose body. The surgery was expected to sideline Bell for 2-4 weeks. The 24-year-old plans to be ready for Opening Day. “We’ll see how I feel when I get out there,” Bell said. “We’re not going to rush because there’s really no reason to.”

This story was originally published February 13, 2017 at 2:17 PM with the headline "Spring training returns to Bradenton and Ivan Nova is the newest Pirate to watch."