SF Giants
TEMPE, Ariz. — Sean Hjelle acknowledged he was upset with not being invited to the alternate site last season. The Giants prioritized their hitting prospects, whose development work is harder to conduct on their own, and thus left their pitching prospects at home in 2020.
And yet, he got to be a father to a son, George, who’s now 11 months and just took his first steps. For much of the break he was around Richmond, where his wife is from, and nearby the Giants’ Double-A affiliate, where he could work out and throw bullpen sessions. He had time with his family that will never be replicated and witnessed firsts he would have missed. He believes he was able to improve and clear his mind even without the invitation to Sacramento.
He considers himself a fortunate one.
The less fortunate ones? Those poor teenagers who faced him.
“There was a travel team in Richmond, I think it was 16-U,” Hjelle said Thursday before the Giants played the Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium. “I threw to those guys just to get an actual hitter, just to get some sort of different live look.”
Yes, he reported, the strikeout rates were high.
For a player who essentially has not been seen in a year, apart from his play in the instructional league, Hjelle sounds almost thankful rather than regretful or angry. He feels as if he progressed as a pitcher and perhaps as a person.
“I don’t think I lost anything,” Hjelle said, asked if it could been seen as a lost year. “It was honestly a really good reset, if not physically, mentally, for sure. Just to — not take a step away from the game, in a sense, but just to kind of keep it at arm’s length a little bit, take a breath, reset mentally.
“Spend some time, have a year just outright with my family and my son. That was amazing, and I’ll never get a year like that back again.”
The 23-year-old giant Giant, who is 6-foot-11 and their No. 11 prospect, has begun showing the team the same stuff it loved when he was a 2018 second-round pick. Hjelle debuted in the Cactus League on Wednesday, when he pitched a one-hit, no-run inning with a fastball that consistently touched 95 mph (on the Scottsdale Stadium gun) and had good feel for his breaking ball.
“It’s a tough at-bat for hitters because you don’t often see limbs that long,” Gabe Kapler said with a laugh, “and trying to pick the ball up from a location that you don’t normally see. So good, solid outing.”
His windup is so easy for such an overwhelming pitcher, and he feels smoother on the mound than he did a year ago. He’s had time for reps, even if they weren’t watched by coaches on site.
“I feel a lot more together, just in terms of my body, and I feel a lot more coordinated and fluid,” said Hjelle, who said he did rehab exercises not because he needed to but because he heard it might help. “Last year I was pretty … stiff and rigid, but I feel so much more tight and compact.”
He’s had time to clear his head, which can be enormous for a prospect who so badly wants to reach the majors and needs to go through so much — in so many places — before that dream comes true. Hjelle touched Richmond in 2019 and has positioned himself, if all goes right, to touch San Francisco this year.
The Giants will need a lot of pitchers this year, especially starters, and Hjelle is the closest prospect to being ready. He was missed last year, but it will be hard to miss the skyscraper again for a few reasons.