They have a history of doing things like that.

Quite a while back, the Cincinnati Reds had a young pitcher who they coddled and brought along very slowly because of his tender age. They would not pitch him cold nights and kept him to under 7 innings so that he would not hurt his young arm. He was the second-yuoungest pitcher to perform in the majors (Joe Nuxhall, another Red) was the youngest.

It came to pass that the Reds beat the Yankees 4 games to zip in the World Series with this young pitcher winning 2 of the four games via shutouts.

The very next year, he was a Yankee, and another of those players, Ken Griffey was to follow, as well.

Sorry I cannot remember the pitcher's name (one of those senior moments) but he came back later and was the Reds pitching coach for years until recently.