By Ernest Dove
25-year-old Marcel Renteria was drafted by the New York Mets in the 6th round of the 2017 MLB June Amateur Draft from New Mexico State University. After completing his first season in pro ball with the Brooklyn Cyclones out of their bullpen (11.1 IP, 17 K, 9.53 ERA) Renteria went on to make 15 starts the following season for the Class A Affiliate Columbia Fireflies (76.2 IP 72 K, 4.23 ERA) in 2018. Since the start of the 2019 season, the organization placed Renteria with the Class-A Advanced St. Lucie Mets and moved him into their bullpen full time.
The adjustment started slowly for Renteria, struggling the first 2 months of the season getting acquainted to the level and new role. Then Marcel started making the adjustments and tweaks to his game, and it began to show through the summer.
In the month of June, through 6 outings (12 IP) Renteria recorded 11 strikeouts and pitched to a 1.50 ERA. Then the calendar moved to July and he never looked back, recording consecutive scoreless outings one after the other. In a span of 10 outings from July 2nd through August 7th, Renteria pitched a total of 19.2 innings, recording 20 strikeouts against five walks, allowing only seven hits during this stretch. Six of these outings lasted more than one inning for the right-handed hard thrower.
Renteria made one appearance the final week of the season at AA level, pitching a scoreless inning for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies and looked primed to start back at the level in 2020.
With the season lost due to Covid 19 Marcel, like all milb players, had to find ways to stay in shape, stay sharp, and prepare for what lies ahead. With certain options having been closed, an opportunity presented itself, and now the hard work is paying off with some help from added analytics and a new pitching guru.
For the past two months Renteria has been training on the west coast with assistance from Simon Mathews through X2Athletics, Push Performance and Driveline Baseball.
3 comments:
Great post Ernest. Will look forward to seeing Marcel next year in double A.
He made so many strides this offseason through now
Nice article on Renteria, Ernest. Love it when guys strive to improve and then actually do so.
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