Stone Crabs' McKay aces FSL debut

Pitching, hitting, more advanced leagues. Nothing seems to slow Brendan McKay's momentum.
The Rays' No. 3 prospect pitched five innings of scoreless relief to win his Florida State League debut Friday, allowing one hit and striking out five, as Class A Advanced Charlotte beat Jupiter, 7-1, at Charlotte Sports Park.

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"Felt great to get back on the mound, especially a new ballclub, and get the feel for the teammates and the park and everything," McKay said on the Stone Crabs' postgame show.
Promoted from Class A Bowling Green on Monday, McKay (1-0) pitched in relief of Major League right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, who's rehabbing an elbow injury sustained at the end of Spring Training. MLB.com's No. 24 overall prospect came on in the fourth for his first professional relief appearance and allowed a hit to the third batter he faced, Eric Gutierrez before retiring the next 13 hitters. He struck out five, walked none and has fanned 45 while issuing two free passes in 29 2/3 innings across two levels.
The left-hander said he didn't feel much pressure in his first pitching appearance following the promotion.
"Not really, just first-game jitters," he said. "You want to make sure your stuff is there and make quality pitches."
The fourth overall selection in last year's Draft, McKay threw 43 of 60 pitches to navigate the Marlins affiliate. The Rays have been careful with the two-way player's arm, limiting him to 85 pitches.
"Really just attacking the zone, getting ahead early," McKay said, explaining his ability to limit walks. "Even if you fall behind, just keep coming at them with great pitches that are pitchers' pitches and that hitters don't want to swing at. Force hitters to swing early and if you're a guy who attacks the zone and gets a lot of strikes, they know they can't fell behind and they get a little anxious."
Stone Crabs pitching coach Doc Watson, who had seen McKay briefly during Spring Training, was impressed with the 22-year-old.
"From just a quick look, there's a lot of advanced things we can do with him," Watson said. "Just the way he locates, the way he mixes his secondaries in. We can talk about pitch selection, reading bad swings, what hitters are trying to do, we can get a lot more into those types of conversations."
The fifth-year pitching coach said McKay's sequencing is a real key to his success.
"You talk about balance on the mound, but it's more about balance in his pitches, how he mixes and matches, and then the composure and makeup, it's outstanding," he added.
Watson playfully jabbed McKay over his occasional reluctance to do interviews but said there's not much else he'd improve upon.
"He doesn't possess the gift of gab I do," Watson said with a laugh. "But he's got a great sense of humor and is extremely intelligent."
"Not get in his way, quite honestly," he replied when asked what he'll work on with McKay. "He's ready to eat up information."
The Stone Crabs gave Eovaldi, McKay and Brandon Koch plenty of support. Robbie Tenerowicz doubled and drove in a run on a three-hit night, while Tristan Gray delivered a run-scoring single and an RBI double.
McKay has accomplished all he has on the mound while posting an .817 OPS for Bowling Green. He's 1-for-9 at the plate in two games with the Stone Crabs. Before the Draft, the Golden Spikes Award winner said he would oblige if the team that selected him wanted him to choose between pitcher or position player. But the Rays gave the Pennsylvania native the second-highest signing bonus ($7,007,500) under the current set of Draft rules and have embraced McKay's desire to pitch and hit.
"[The Rays] had something somewhat laid out, but then they also came to me and asked for some opinions," McKay told MiLB.com in March. "I had a little more inside info for what it took to do it. Basically, almost what I was used to, just to keep everything familiar at that first season."
"We basically mirrored his Louisville program," Rays director of minor league operations Mitch Lukevics said in March. "He had success at Louisville. He stayed healthy at Louisville. … In a nutshell, that program that he worked last year, we'll do this year as well and we're going to tweak it."