Winnipeg pitcher has the right stuff

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This article was published 31/05/2021 (1583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FOR three years, Ben Onyshko has been laser-focused on his goal of reaching the major leagues.

But who could have known his route to the big time would include a side trip to the Olympics? Onyshko, a 24-year-old lefty from Winnipeg, is planning to do just that.

A reliever in the Seattle Mariners organization, he recently joined Canadian senior men’s baseball team that began its effort at the Baseball Americas Qualifier against Colombia in Palm Beach, Fla., Monday night.

The winner of the eight-team tournament gets direct entry to the Olympic baseball tournament at next month’s Games in Toyko, joining world No. 1 Japan, No. 3 Korea, No. 5 Mexico and 18th-ranked Israel.

“I’m pretty hopeful just because of the group of guys we got here,” said Onyshko by telephone from Florida prior to Monday’s game. “The majority of the team has really extensive international experience, which I think is a difference-maker between us and a lot of other teams but, obviously, a lot of these other countries, the U.S. of course and all the Central American countries, have a lot of a lot of talent as well.”

Onyshko doesn’t have the international seasoning of some of his Canadian teammates (he played with the junior nats in high school) but he’s been paying his dues. A 24th-round pick in the 2018 June Amateur Draft, he spent 2018 and 2019 playing at the A level in the Mariners chain and was one of the players in the organization to retain their jobs during the 2020 season, ultimately wiped out by the pandemic.

This spring, he started the year in AAA Tacoma before being summoned by the nats. He’s a young pup among a number of grizzled vets on the Canucks pitching staff and he’s happy to be able to soak up some of their accumulated wisdom.

“I mean (John) Axford, (Scott) Richmond and (Scott) Mathieson and (Andrew) Albers — all those guys have big league experience and as a Canadian growing up, especially as a pitcher, you look up to those guys,” said Onyshko. “It’s been cool to actually be here and practise a couple of days with them.”

Canada, ranked No. 13 in the world, is playing in Group B with seventh-ranked Cuba, No. 8 Venezuela and No. 14 Colombia. The second-ranked Americans, 10th-ranked Dominican Republic, No. 11 Puerto Rico and No. 15 Nicaragua make up Group A.

A sixth and final qualifying team will be declared later this month when the second- and third-place teams from the Americas Qualifier head to Mexico for a last chance qualifying tournament that will also include fourth-rated Chinese Taipei, No. 6 Australia and No. 9 Netherlands.

Playing for your country, Onyshko said, demands a different approach to the game.

“It’s refreshing to see a lot of guys that are super excited for the international competition,” said Onyshko. “Obviously, it’s a little bit different than minor league play. In the minors, it’s more so kind of personal results and moving up (the ladder). Here, everyone has the exact same goal of winning, so it’s gonna be exciting…

“You try to perform well yourself and that’s your job on team but it’ll just be refreshing and exciting to get into some games where it’s all about getting that team win at the end, regardless of your performance.”

Onyshko, a reliever for most of his pro career, will perform the same role for Canada. Pitching coach Denis Boucher expects a committee approach from the bullpen.

His 13-member staff includes an wealth of lefties — Onyshko, Evan Rutckyj, Ryan Kellogg and Travis Seabrooke, most recently with the American Association’s Winnipeg Goldeyes. Seabrooke hails from Peterborough, Ont., while another member of the Goldeyes, Team Canada infielder Wes Darvill, is a product of Langley, B.C.

“I saw him (last when) he was starting most of the time as an amateur,” said Boucher, who’s also employed as a Canadian scout for the New York Yankees. “Now he’s working out of the bullpen and that’s probably how we were going to use them. He’s probably going to be one of our main guys since he’s been throwing and facing hitters. Being at the triple-A level, he’s been facing some good competition.”

After being forced to skip an entire season, Onyshko has worked diligently to regain his form.

“It’s definitely been good for my development to move up to AAA at the start of this year,” he said. “I personally don’t put a lot of stock into trying to read the minds of the front office. It sounds kind of cliche but really I’m just trying to do my job and get a little bit better day by day. Being in the minor leagues, it’s much more personal development oriented.”

Although he’s not a power pitcher (his fastball has been clocked in the high 80s), Onyshko has done some fine-tuning he believes will help in the long term.

“I made a couple like minor adjustments and tweaks — one of them being just slightly dropping my arm slot a little bit, which just allows me to get a little bit more movement on my pitches,” said Onyshko. “It’s good because the Mariners are pretty transparent about what they want us to work on, especially as pitchers with all the data and analytics that are available now.

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“They’re able to give us some benchmarks that they want us to hit and so that’s one of the little adjustments I made was just lowering the arm a little bit. Other than that, I’m mostly a two-pitch guy with a sinker, slider. So just recognizing what my strengths are and being really good at executing those two things.”

Boucher is confident in Onyshko’s skill set.

“He’s not overpowering but he does have a good breaking ball and works with the change-up,” he said. “He uses the change-up to get those hitters off balance and gets them out at least one time through the order and (hopefully) be able to go two or three innings for us.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14

Mike Sawatzky
Reporter

Mike has been working on the Free Press sports desk since 2003.

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