At around the time Cardinals pitching prospect Tink Hence was eight or nine years old, the baseball conversations he’d hear while sitting in the back seat of the family car between his father and older brothers about managing emotions when playing the sport began to resonate with the future 63rd overall pick.
“You can't be all happy whenever you do good and then when you do bad you want to pout around,” he recalled of his dad’s messaging. “It's just kind of just keeping it even-keeled. … When it goes bad, just shake (it) off and come back. When you do good, just try to find a consistency and keep going… That's the big thing that I just keep on my shoulders and in my head anytime.”
Those lessons learned have shown this spring as Hence, 20, got his first experience in big-league camp as a non-roster invitee before he was reassigned to minor-league camp on Wednesday.
A pair of his Grapefruit League outings provided a glimpse.
“It’s always interesting when you go out to the mound and you’re taking the ball from a pitcher, how just you can look at their face and tell a lot,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said on March 6. “As to when things don’t go their way, if they’re in a little bit of a panic or overall frustration. But more, you can sense some guys are frustrated. They’re always going to be frustrated. No one wants to hand you the ball, but some of them are panicked and relieved handing you the ball.”
“When I went out there last night, you could just tell there was just zero of that — which is a really good trait,” Marmol said the day Hence pitched a scoreless inning of relief against Houston after having allowed two runs in 2/3 of an inning three days prior. “And then for him to answer back the way he did today, that says a lot. Especially for his age.”
Paying attention paid off.
"Just listening, hearing them (my brothers) get chewed out on this and that," Hence said. "I don't like chewing so I wanted to be able to handle whatever and just do my best."
The 2023 MiLB season will be the third of Hence’s career. He was drafted in 2020 out of West Chapel (Ark.) high school behind fellow prospects Jordan Walker and Masyn Winn. Coming out of the draft limited on innings in his senior season of high school and the lack of a minor league season because of the coronavirus pandemic led the Cardinals down the cautious route for Hence’s throwing progression.
Since turning pro, Hence has thrown 72 2/3 innings total in the Florida Complex League, Class Low-A, and the Arizona Fall League. 52 1/3 of those innings came this past season with Low-A Palm Beach.
As a starter last season for Palm Beach, the 20-year-old righty was limited to three innings of work in his first eight starts and later was able to work into the fourth frame in five of his last eight regular season outings. He finished the regular season with a 1.38 ERA, 81 strikeouts, and a 0.88 WHIP.
His last outing of 2022 for the PB-Cards came in the first round of the Florida State League playoffs where he threw four scoreless innings and struck out three while allowing two hits.
"I've been in the game a little while and I've had some good pitchers. The (Dylan) Bundys and (Kevin) Gausmans,” said Palm Beach manager Gary Kendall, who spent 17 years managing in the Orioles’ farm system before joining the Cardinals in 2022. “He's the best kid that I've ever had at that level of baseball and that young. To have that much poise, to have that much maturity, makeup, stuff — the whole combination of everything. And I know his starts were kind of abbreviated. They weren't really deep, but he went about his business.”
An innings uptick in 2023 is expected.
“It's just so much more that you know you can go out and achieve but I'm just kind of trusting the process,” Hence said during an interview in Jupiter, Fla. “I know that this season is going to be a little bit different. I'm just going to be ready to go out there and earn it.”
Before being reassigned to minor league camp on Wednesday, Hence made four appearances in the Grapefruit League, where he got the chance to face big-league batters like Mets' slugger Pete Alonso. He completed 3 1/3 innings of work, allowed two runs, and struck out five in his opportunities on the main stage of spring. With a fastball that touched 99 mph and a breaking ball that generated swings-and-misses, the right-hander showed some of the promise that has helped him climb prospect rankings.
In preparations for an increased workload, the 6-foot-1 right-hander listed at 175 pounds used the offseason to add some weight to his frame. He hopes it’ll help with his recovery process for his starts, which he hopes will regularly be five or six-inning outings.
“I'm really looking forward to it,” Hence said. “Really just picking up from where I left off last season. I felt like towards the end, (when) I went to the fall league, I felt like I could go more. Just being in that position, going there and learning so much about my body and how to recover, I feel like this season is going to be pretty fun to watch."
