Pitch perfect

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This article was published 20/06/2020 (1967 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ben Onyshko is always working on his velocity, yet the speed with which he moves through the Seattle Mariners system isn’t one of his pressing concerns.

The Winnipeg product has two years of professional baseball behind him, and he’s relatively content with his development as a relief pitcher and his intrinsic value to the major league organization.

Onyshko spent the 2019 season with the West Virginia Power, the Mariners’ low Single-A affiliate based in Charleston, and might well have gained a promotion this year to the high Single-A Modesta (Calif.) Nuts or Double-A Arkansas Travelers, had the COVID-19 pandemic not scrapped spring training.

The 23-year-old lefty continues to work out near his home in DeLand, Fla., vowing to be ready for the resumption of play — most likely in 2021 — wherever that might be. Onyshko, who might well be the best prospect to emerge from the province since nine-year big-leaguer Corey Koskie (1998-06), is taking a patient approach and won’t compare his progression to others in the Seattle organization.

Nor does he dwell on the endgame — cracking the Mariners roster.

“The No. 1 thing you can’t do is over-analyze what moves the team is making. You’ll find yourself pitching really well, and it’s easy to beat yourself up and question the whole system if you’re not suddenly getting moved up. So, definitely it’s important to stick to the plan and not get flustered if you’re not moving up the ranks as quickly as you want,” Onyshko said during a recent telephone chat with the Free Press.

“The second thing is being in touch with the organization and knowing what they want out of you, because nowadays, especially with a lot of emphasis on technology and analytics, it’s not always just the player that hits or pitches really well that gets moved up. It’s often the player that has tools or has data that can profile really well at the major-league level. So, being on the same page as the player development people, knowing they want me to stick to my major strengths they drafted me for and to grow those.”

For the 6-2, 215-pound pitcher, that’s honing his slider and sinking fastball.

Indeed, the modern game features plenty of beasts tossing 98 miles per hour off the hill — some even touching 100 m.p.h. — but the breaking ball remains a lethal weapon in a pitcher’s arsenal.

West Virginia’s pitching coach, Alon Leichman, said the affable, bright and well-spoken Canadian consistently throws in the high 80s, but possesses some of the best stuff of any reliever in the Mariners minor-league system.

“It’s his sinker and slider, it’s a deadly combination because they both look straight for a while and then one breaks hard to the right and one breaks to the left. That’s pretty unique,” said Leichman, speaking from his off-season home Gezer, a kibbutz in central Israel. “When Ben was able to be in the zone with those two pitches, those were the nights that no one could really hit him. He was a guy that did everything for us… a very versatile pitcher.”

Interestingly, Leichman, just 31, had a tremendous U.S. college career and was to pitch for Israel at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but will have to wait until 2021. He spent hours last summer playing catch with the former little-leaguer with the Winnipeg South Chiefs and got to know him well.

Leichman said Onyshko’s stock is on the rise, a statement backed by Seattle’s decision to retain his services, while about 50 others in the system were cut June 1 in the wake of the coronavirus health crisis and its crippling effect on minor-league baseball.

“We feel everyone in our organization has a real opportunity with us. We don’t just label guys as prospects or non-prospects, we look at each individual and maximize their improvement,” said Leichman. “Of course, it’s a two-way street. Ultimately, it’s up to Ben to make that commitment. But if he goes out and performs, the door is open for progression for him.

“(Major-league) baseball could certainly be in his future. He still has a lot to work on and refine, but with the raw tools he has, he can find a way to make it up there. He has a unique slider and a unique-moving fastball, and if he can get an uptick in velocity, the sky’s the limit.”

Onyshko, whose cousin is 2016 Olympic gymnast Isabela Onyshko of Brandon, spent Grade 10 at Westgate Mennonite Collegiate in Winnipeg but moved to Alberta when he was 15 to attend the Vauxhall Academy of Baseball for his final two years of high school. He also was a member of Canada’s national junior team.

After graduation in 2014, he was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 16th round but accepted a baseball scholarship to attend NCAA Division 1 Stetson University in DeLand, instead. Not long after, his parents, Karen and Mike, moved from Winnipeg to the community north of Orlando. His sister, Emily, attends the University of Toronto.

Onyshko spent four seasons with the Stetson Hatters (obtaining a biology degree), re-entered the MLB draft in 2018 and was selected by the Mariners in the 24th round. That summer, he spent the bulk of the year with the Everett AquaSox, the Mariners’ class-A short-season affiliate in Everett, Wash., and made the jump to West Virginia in 2019.

He appeared in 38 games with the Power, recording a 3.99 earned-run average while striking out 82 batters in 70 innings of work.

That first full year of life in the minors — suiting up for 140 ball games in the South Atlantic League, earning a small wage, riding the bus for eight to 12 hours at a time, all in pursuit of a dream — was draining, he said.

“It definitely more of a big-league feel. We were playing six-plus games a week, so it’s a grind and it takes a toll mentally and physically. Other guys have goals of getting great stats but my main goal was just staying healthy for the entirety of the year,” Onyshko said. “But it’s everything you signed up for, and you accept it going in. You find a place to live, knowing you’re a phone call away from being moved somewhere else in the country.”

There were early signs Onyshko could be a force on the mound. With the starting assignment for the Chiefs’ under-15 squad at a tournament in Regina, he fanned 17 hitters in a seven-inning game against a powerful all-star squad from a baseball academy in Okotoks, Alta.

Former Baseball Manitoba executive director Morgan de Pena, who coached Onyshko with Winnipeg South, said he vividly recalls that splendid performance by the teen.

“He was totally dominant in that complete game. I remember (the Okotoks) coach came up to me after the game and said, ‘Where did you get this guy? This kid’s going to go someplace,’” said de Pena. “His ball had a lot of movement even back then. He worked very hard all the way up to get to where he is now.”

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Onyshko, who throws five days a week and works out in the gym every other day, said soon after that tournament a childhood fantasy began to morph into a legitimate life path.

“When you’re a kid you always have aspirations of playing a sport professionally. But it was probably around then that maybe I didn’t know if I could have a career out of baseball but I knew I wanted to pursue it, at least at the college level, and give it my best shot. That’s when I started to take baseball more seriously,” he said.

“It’s definitely pretty special a few years later to be in the position I’m in. I think back to a lot of my buddies who were good players, and it’s cool to realize how far I’ve come and how special it is for a Manitoban to be playing pro.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell