Gianluca Dalatri determined to take advantage of second chance

CEDAR RAPIDS — The game has been over for about a half-hour. Gianluca Dalatri has eaten, showered and dressed.

But before he leaves Veterans Memorial Stadium on this Thursday night, the Cedar Rapids Kernels relief pitcher sits in a chair in front of his locker, puts in a pair of ear buds to drown out the music blaring in the victorious clubhouse, pulls out a pen and a small leather-bound book.

Then he begins writing. It’s his pitching journal.

He has another journal at home that he uses to write about non-baseball events.

“Multiple times a day,” Dalatri said. “Just allows me to put into words what happened that particular day and then almost forget it. Just move on to the next day. Work’s work, life is life. It helps me separate the two.”

He was asked what he might be writing about this night, with that question immediately revoked. The contents of journals ARE supposed to private.

“Yeah, that’s personal,” Dalatri said with a smile.

Certainly you’d have to guess he was going to write about the inning he threw and the team he threw it against. It was the Peoria Chiefs, a club Dalatri was part of a lot of last season.

The 25-year-old right-hander had five saves in 18 appearances for the Chiefs before getting promoted to Double-A. The parent St. Louis Cardinals released him during spring training this past March.

“The guys I faced (tonight), there weren’t too many of them I played with last year,” Dalatri said. “But it was definitely an experience, seeing them on Tuesday, going over and saying hi to them. I have no beef with the Cardinals. They treated me well. It’s just business. Little things happen.”

After his release, Dalatri went to Tread Athletics Sports Performance in Charlotte, N.C., a pitching academy that Cedar Rapidian Mitch Keller of the Pittsburgh Pirates worked out at a couple of offseasons ago to regain fastball velocity. Keller has been one of Major League Baseball’s best starting pitchers so far this season.

Over a month of work with Tread helped Dalatri improve his stuff and get some attention from MLB clubs. In late April, he signed a minor-league deal with the Minnesota Twins and was assigned to the Kernels from extended spring training earlier this month.

He hasn’t given up an earned run in his first three appearances for Cedar Rapids, flashing a heater that consistently sits 94 to 96 miles per hour. That’s pretty good velocity for someone the Cardinals didn’t want.

“Good arm. Couple of offspeed pitches,” said Kernels Manager Brian Dinkelman. “Good to see the velo from him. We’re excited to have him in our bullpen.”

“Super impressed with how they run things,” Dalatri said. “Very professional, a breath of fresh air in a lot of ways. And that’s not a knock on the Cardinals. I’ve just really, really enjoyed the way they operate here. My teammates are awesome, the guys have treated me awesome. I’ve never felt like I was a new guy here. I’ve had a blast.”

Dalatri has quite a story. His mother, Elvira, played professional basketball in Europe and his father, Rich, was with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and New Jersey Nets for over 20 years, the league’s first-ever strength and conditioning coach.

Gianluca, or Luca, made a name for himself in baseball, a high-school all-American in New Jersey considered to be a possible high MLB draft pick as a senior in 2016. But he had a scholarship to the University of North Carolina in his back pocket and when teams didn’t meet the signing bonus demands he had to eschew that scholarship, he ended up being just a cursory 40th and final-round pick of the Colorado Rockies.

His career at North Carolina was full of promise but injury as well. The Detroit Tigers took him in the 40th round in 2019, but he decided not to sign again and return to school for one more season.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the 2020 MLB Draft was shortened to five rounds, and Dalatri ended up signing as a non-drafted free agent by the Cardinals.

“Oh, man, that’s a loaded question,” Dalatri said, when asked how he would describe his baseball journey. “My past is my past. The things I experienced, I learned from, and I’ve moved on. A lot of things happened that I couldn’t control. I’ve grown my faith from it. For that reason, I don’t regret any of it. I’m grateful for where I am right now. Just keep riding it. I couldn’t be more happy with where my life is right now, so I’m just going to keep going with it. Try and stay healthy, obviously, and keep progressing.”

He still has a jersey, and, as they say, when you’ve got a jersey, you’ve got a chance.

“You know, one door closes, another opens,” Dalatri said. “God has a plan, and I’m in a good place now.”

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com