Guys Like Palacios & Andujar are Forcing Decisions this Offseason for Pirates

9-23-23 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

Even as Joshua Palacios and Miguel Andujar continue to hit baseballs and contribute to the Pirates strong season finish, it’s not easy to place either on the 26-man roster to begin 2024.

I mean, it works now, with a 28 man roster and pitchers who’ve thrown as many innings as the team will allow matriculate to the IL in favor of whatever constitutes a fresh arm this time of year. And still you hear cries for Canaan Smith-Njigba or Nick Gonzales to get a taste in the waning season.

Point is, there’s competition for these spots right now, and we’ll see this team bring in even more this offseason.

Don’t mistake me, I can see Joshua Palacios as a bench bat, and a good 4th outfielder type, totally, not even saying it to placate you, but as I look at the roster, it’s really hard for me to see he and Andujar. Hell, when I look at it long enough, I start struggling to place a bunch of guys.

Let’s do a little exercise, figuring we’ll have 13 position players who come North with the team. Let’s also go ahead and suppose they sign absolutely nobody, not even Cutch. Hey, most of you according to many comments I get anyway don’t believe Nutting will anyway. Ignoring completely what was done last time they built or last offseason for that matter, but I digress.

Again, no additions.

The Starting 9

Ji-Hwan Bae – CF/2B
Bryan Reynolds – LF/DH
Ke’Bryan Hayes – 3B
Henry Davis – DH/RF
Jack Suwinski – RF/CF
Oneil Cruz – SS/DH
Liover Peguero – 2B/SS
Jared Triolo – 1B/3B/2B
Endy Rodriguez – C

Quibble about which 2B will win out, bemoan that there should be a vet 1B, whatever, the assignment was what we have now, no additions. Those very additions I’ll be using shortly to make my point.

The Bench 5

Jason Delay – C
Connor Joe – Corner OF/1B
Nick Gonzales – 2B/SS/3B
Josh Palacios – OF/DH/PH
Miguel Andujar – Corner OF/DH

That’s it. That’s all our spots. Maybe you’d choose differently, that’s fine, but you can at least appreciate it isn’t easy right? Like if Bae is gonna be a CF, you have to have a bench player who can cover and since Triolo is starting at 1B, Hey, it’s Gonzo right? Connor Joe would have to stick around to backup 1B, I mean, you need only see the end of this season to see how much the Pirates like Andujar at 1B.

A team claiming they want to make the playoffs next year should probably add some talent with experience. For the purposes of this piece, the names aren’t important, except for one.

The Additions

I personally feel they have to add a First Baseman, but to make this incredibly hard as quickly as possible, allow me to toss in one Andrew McCutchen.

You want him back. The fan in you can’t have it any other way.

The team wants him back, Cutch wants to be back. They can afford it, they will pay for it.

He’s not retiring.

The version of Cutch we just watched can only do one thing, DH. If we’re lucky, the version who comes back in 2024 can do that and play RF once a week or so, but I can’t count on it.

Can I be completely honest with you? If this weren’t Cutch I can’t honestly say I’d be crying for a pretty much DH only free agent. I can think of things that would help far more from shear ability to fill in elsewhere, but it’s going to happen.

Boom right?

Immediately my starting 9 at least partially kicks Henry out of DH. Probably loses Josh Palacios or Andujar a spot right there if you’re even half way honest. Palacios has an option, Andujar doesn’t and would need tendered a contract for arbitration by December of this year.

That’s just Cutch folks.

You know they have to upgrade First Base. Triolo might well turn out over there, Joe is surely capable, but you need a starter to at least start the season and operate as a mentor. Again, name isn’t important, Santana, Belt, whatever. Point is someone else has to go from that list.

Is it now the one of Andujar and Palacios you allowed to stick? Is it Gonzales because now Triolo can be a true backup not starting at 1B? Is it Bae/Henry?

That’s really just a minimal investment to the offense. I’ve heard a ton of you say they should get a “true” CF claiming Jack and Bae can’t cut it. Or a “Power Hitting Corner OF” that theoretically is out there, better than Jack and only like 10 million. Imagining it is though, go ahead, remove another. Just make it make sense.

Summary

This time of year it’s easy to believe a lot of what you’re seeing, or to feel certain players who were fringe are now essential contributors. I do it too, this isn’t me sitting on a mountain top telling you I’m smarter, I just think about this stuff long before it happens because that’s the way my brain is broken lol.

Note, I didn’t mention guys you’d already assume won’t make it like Alika Williams or Rivas. In many ways, this roster doesn’t have as much room as one would think, and regardless of who you think is or isn’t good, that roster I laid out up there is very much so a likely configuration if they chose to add not one blessed thing, which they won’t.

In other words, the sun won’t rise on a day where this Pittsburgh Pirates management team sees more value in Miguel Andujar than they do Connor Joe, so this is where you must apply, what you or I think doesn’t matter, this is how they think.

Now in this instance, I happen to agree with them and even if I didn’t, look at the roster, they need what Joe can do more than what they believe or will allow Andujar to do. That maybe changes as they add a free agent or two.

Have honest conversations about the roster. This stuff is going to hurt for some fans who have loudly backed someone who realistically has the slimmest of chance of making it next year. Even really well performing prospects might have to wait.

It’s a new stage of the build, and good players escape from deep teams all the time. Sometimes via trade, sometimes because of Baseball’s CBA that legislates roster movement, but solid talent can’t show itself without the right injury at the right time, or a weak roster spot once you get here.

You want to cut Rivas and Option Williams right now for CSN and Gonzales, ok, none of the things we discussed will change.

You’ll learn nothing in the 5-10 at bats each gets, and lose the same amount from someone like Andujar, Palacios or Peguero. Still, I’m fine with it, just know, it won’t matter beyond maybe rewarding a kid.

That’s enough, the pitching staff is it’s own scary story in which I could literally see Roansy Contreras waived if he doesn’t make the club in March being out of options and all, but that’s another story.

Listen to each other as we go through this, and think through these roster moves. It’s all just about sports after all, and it’s supposed to be fun.