Jared Oliva Worked to Make 2020 Goal a Reality

In 2020, Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Jared Oliva did something that wasn’t unheard of, unique or – due to the cancellation of the minor league season that summer – uncommon. Without stepping foot on dirt of a Triple-A diamond, he made his debut in the major leagues.

Oliva was one of over 200 baseball players who made their major league debuts during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, in empty stadiums with crowd noise blasting in from the speakers. He was one of eight to debut for the Pirates that season and joined Nick Mears as the only two to skip an assignment to Indianapolis.

The then 25-year-old was rated as Pittsburgh’s No. 20 prospect according to Baseball America entering the 2020 season. He had spent the previous year with Double-A Altoona, hitting .277 (124-for-447) in 123 games. After spring training was halted in March 2020, he was named to Pittsburgh’s Alternate Training Site in Altoona in July.

Most players get the phone call they have been dreaming about for their entire career while they are playing in Triple-A, and it typically comes the day before they are on the active major league roster. On Sept. 21, 2020, unlike most callups, Oliva had just three hours to prepare.

“I was actually in Pittsburgh already. I finished up work at the alternate site in Altoona and there was a small group of us that went to Pittsburgh,” Oliva said. “We would practice before the big league team came in and I was taking some live batting practice just like a normal day.

“I had already showered up and turned in my laundry when word got around that I needed to go see [Pirates manager] Derek Shelton in his office. I found out around 3:30 or 4 o’clock before a 7 o’clock game. I didn’t have my jersey made or anything like that, so I was kind of scrambling a little bit.”

As he was scrambling to be physically ready, Oliva also started mentally preparing for the game ahead. All he knew was that his name was on the active roster and that he wasn’t in the starting lineup, so he didn’t know when his debut would happen. Inning after inning rolled by as Oliva sat in the dugout.

“I literally did not know. It was my debut and I was just sitting in the dugout talking to people. It was honestly a mental rush,” Oliva said. “In the third of fourth inning, I thought I was going to pinch run so I was getting my legs loose in the tunnel. Then I thought there might be a double switch, so I got my legs loose and my arm going. I ended up pinch hitting in the ninth, so the game felt super long. I was just trying to be ready for every situation.”

Although it was a rush that day, Oliva had been preparing for that moment all season. He had a goal to make it to the major leagues in 2020 and wasn’t letting the pandemic affect that.

“I set a goal before spring training in 2020 that I wanted to make my MLB debut that year. That goal never changed for me,” Oliva said. “With the pandemic I told myself that if there was a [MLB] season, I wasn’t changing my goal. We also can’t control a lot of outside factors, but I didn’t want to let that affect what I [was] doing, so that kept pushing me.”

Oliva wanted to achieve his goal, so he used that motivation to push himself every day at the Pirates Alternate Training Site set up in Altoona. He used his resources and advice from the coaches at the alternate site to prepare him for his debut.

“A lot of the coaches we have here in Indy are the same coaches we had at the alternate site. They’ve all been in the big leagues and kind of know how to manage things,” Oliva said. “Honestly, credit to all the guys and coaches who prepared us. It was unique, but we made the best of it and that kind of shows with how many players Pittsburgh sent up.”

Oliva used his experience at the alternate site to make up for the lost time at Triple-A to prepare him for his debut. After playing in a total of six games with Pittsburgh in 2020, Oliva made his Triple-A debut on June 12, 2021 with Indianapolis. He played in 15 games with Indy before being recalled by Pittsburgh on July 1. Before being optioned back to Indy, Oliva played in 20 big league games with a .175 batting average (7-for-40), two doubles and two RBI.

He continues to craft his skill and since returning to Triple-A in early August, Oliva has improved his batting average to .261 (52-for-199) with 11 doubles, three triples, two home runs and 23 RBI.

With the help of coaches and some Triple-A experience under his belt, Oliva hopes to return to the majors for a longer stint and ideally, a permanent stay.