Former Gamecock Wil Crowe finding his place in Pirates bullpen

Wil Crowe was enjoying Christmas Eve with his wife, Hillary when his phone started ringing. It was the Washington Nationals’ assistant general manager Mike DeBartolo. The former South Carolina baseball pitcher knew this wasn’t going to be a friendly greeting, but rather a business call.

He was coming off a rough first season in 2020, where he finished with an 11.88 ERA. With Washington already having many great pitchers in their starting rotation, he was going to be the odd man out.

DeBartolo told Crowe that the Nationals traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for 2019 All-Star Josh Bell. While it was tough to comprehend, he saw it as a fresh start.

“Looking back, it’s gonna probably be one of the best things for my career,” Crowe said. “I knew I probably wasn’t going to make the team. So, with the Pirates, I knew I could come in, as long as I did my job and got guys out that I had a really good chance to make the team and I think it’s worked out so far.”

Within the last year, Crowe, who played for South Carolina baseball from 2014-17, has transitioned from starting to relieving. He started a team-high 25 games in 2021, posting a 4-8 record with a 5.48 ERA. He credited his struggles towards trying to do more than he knew he could.

“I think, coming up as a rookie, if you don’t have that instant success or instant gratification, that like, ‘Hey, I belong.’ You think about it, and you worry about it, and that it concerns you,” Crowe said. “It was like no matter how good I pitched or whatever, I would always be thinking, ‘Do I belong? Am I supposed to be here?’ I know my stuff’s good, but I was always thinking about that, and I think a lot of young guys do.”

“I think that led to maybe me trying to be too fine or too good or too perfect. And in reality, the best in the game give up their runs and hits. It’s not that they’re perfect all the time, they’re just aggressive. They’re competent, they go do this thing.”

During spring training this year, Crowe was preparing to be a starter, as usual. However, Pirates manager Derek Shelton wanted to see what he could as a reliever for a change.

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“We had a conversation and (Shelton) asked me, basically, what do I want to do, and I told him, I want to be a big leaguer. And he said, ‘We’ve thought about it for a while, and we think you can be very successful in the bullpen,'” Crowe said.

Shelton’s pitching coach, Oscar Marin, helped Crowe make the transition go smoothly. Marin has worked with prominent pitchers like Max Fried, Lance Lynn and Jack Flaherty. So, Crowe knew he was in good hands.

“He has been so helpful to me. I want to know things, I’m a very, I like to know what’s going on or have an idea of certain things before I get into them,” Crowe said. “So, a lot of back and forth on what did this guy do? And because he has been around so many really good pitchers, I’ve been able to bounce ideas off of him and create my own process through him as well.”

Since stepping into this new role, Crowe has been pitching the best he has in his young major league career. In 38 relief appearances, he’s pitching to a 3.31 ERA with 50 strikeouts and 24 walks. He’s also keeping the ball from leaving the ballpark, only allowing two homers compared to 25 last year.

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In addition to pitching well this season, he’s felt happier than ever before.

“I like relieving a ton. It brings out the best in me, brings out a little bulldog, and it brings out the kid in me again,” Crowe said. “I just get to go out there and have fun and do it and get guys out and be aggressive.”

Crowe hasn’t been the only one to improve on the Pirates this season. After losing 101 games last year, Pittsburgh is currently 39-54, sitting in third place in the NL Central.

“You take away three or four games where we’ve gotten beat by probably 15, our run differential is not that bad,” Crowe said. “We lose a ton of games by one or two runs. We’re always in it. And I think that’s probably the best thing, we’re always competing every night.”

With 69 games to go, Crowe’s expectations for the rest of the season remain the same: Go out there and do his job.

“For me, just going out there having fun. Doing what I do best, get guys out and try to help the team win is all I really care about,” Crowe said. “The numbers are gonna fall where the numbers are gonna fall and I’m gonna try and do whatever I can to help our team win every game.”

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