This Pirates Offseason Could Go a Number of Ways, for a Number of Reasons

10-13-23 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X

As we celebrate the anniversary of arguably the greatest homerun ever hit in a World Series by Bill Mazeroski back in 1960 the Pirates seem poised to once again get into the dance.

The game has of course considerably changed in the 63 years since that historic moment. You no longer need to win a season long marathon straight up to go to the series, today you need only have a better record than 8 teams in your league and anything can happen.

Enter Joe Block, he’s always good for these obscure sets of stats that soften the edges on Pirates accomplishments, in this case, he’s just pointing out the obvious but it really got me thinking.

No guarantees for ‘24, but the 84-win D’Backs are a step away from the World Series. Just 8 more wins would’ve gotten the Pirates into the party. Young Bucs getting close.

— Joe Block (@joe_block) October 12, 2023

It’s all true of course, the Pirates only finished with 8 fewer wins than the Danger Noodles, but man that last line “Young Bucs getting close”, well, I can think of nothing worse for this management team to have echoing through their heads as they enter the offseason.

I mean nothing against Joe here, he’s just trying to illustrate how close this team was/is to being one of the upstarts with a shot at kicking the big boys in the shins from the Wild Card spot, but as a fan, man I don’t want my team thinking like that, I want you hoping you’ve built a team that you feel deserves to be there, has a legit shot at winning it.

Maybe that’s not fair to expect entering 2024 with what will assuredly still be a very young team, but I’m just being straight here. If you shoot for a goal like just getting in you might as well be PennDOT, cause you’ll be filling the same pot holes every friggin’ year.

All that said, this team has to walk a line this year don’t they?

They have a ton of young players, and bluntly, upgrading positionally over many of them wouldn’t be all that challenging, but that kinda defeats the purpose of rebuilding in the first place doesn’t it?

Like, let’s look at center field. This is a better team if they play Reynolds in Left, Jack in Right, even if he platoons with a righty, and they went out and got a Center fielder like Michael Taylor. Taylor isn’t a project, he’s also not a great player. He’s a really solid defender, world class even, and he can hit a little, even for power with 21 this year.

Is he an answer for the next few years? Well, at 32 maybe not, but you can’t tell me that wouldn’t really improve the outfield both defensively and offensively. A good thing if your goal is the playoffs right?

I don’t even think he’d break the bank. Yes, that means he’s Bob Nutting-able people.

But that does ensure someone else doesn’t get at bats. It ensures Jack doesn’t continue to grow as a CF, Bae too, and hey, maybe you feel they’ve already gotten as good as they ever will out there, ok, you still have the at bat situation because where the hell is Henry Davis going to play?

He has to play right? I mean, you could of course start him in AAA, but don’t you kinda want to just let him use 2023 to go through the growing pains and understand what he is?

That’s one position.

First base has to be filled primarily because what exists to play there is either underwhelming, and provably so like Conner Joe or untested like Jared Triolo. Don’t get me wrong, both are fine players, but Joe is what he is, a barely above average ball player with the right mix of positional flexibility and a good plate approach. At his age though, he isn’t becoming more than that.

Jared could, but following our premise of improving, they really should go get something I’d think.

Starting pitchers that could help are all over the place for the Pirates. Think you know right now what Ortiz, Contreras, Priester, Jones, Solometo, Skenes, Oviedo, Wolf or anyone else you want to count are? I’ll send you back to 2021 Mitch Keller and show you why you don’t.

We all have opinions, who’s the prospect who’ll click who isn’t, but you, me, scouts, the team, they don’t KNOW about any of them.

So of course you have to go get a couple starters to go with Keller and likely Oviedo. How do you balance “going for it” with leaving room for one of that laundry list to earn a shot? Do you just go get 3 and let injury or total blow up performances provide opportunity? Do you just get 1 and commit to going younger? 2 like I suggested?

This offseason could go just about a million different directions folks. We have all almost come together as one to shout the obvious needs at 1B and SP, but maybe we’re not thinking of this the right way.

Maybe second base play in 2023 didn’t show us that one of these kids will take it next year, and instead showed us none of these kids are ready to take it and we need to go fill it professionally.

Even if that makes the team better in 2024, is that the smart way to approach it? Or as with Davis, would we be better letting the applicants keep applying for the job.

The interesting thing this offseason to me is one way or another, we’re going to see this Spring what Ben Cherington considers good enough to be in the playoffs. He set the goal, and now his results will have to match that.

When you think about it that way, you could see how maybe a position like second base could be thought of differently by a GM putting his name on this thing.

I see a ton of conversations stopped before they get started because commenter A is dumb for suggesting they get someone to play position B. The social media pile on starts and squash goes the idea.

For me, I think ultimately we’ll all be close to right, as they’ll address 1B, SP and DH in fairly predictable ways, but I’ll view everything through the prism of this GM saying he and this franchise will actively be shooting for the playoffs next year, because an 8 game improvement shouldn’t be enough to satisfy a management team that is truly shooting for that goal. And doing the bare minimum this offseason would to me smell an awful lot like they’re hoping that improvement comes organically.

Well, no matter how many times you pour it, a quart is never going to fill a gallon jug, so if they do decide the kids are going to get them to their goal, I’m still holding this GM to his word he was shooting his shot to accomplish his goal.

Hitting the mark won’t be about Bob Nutting next year, it’ll be about Ben Cherington. What he needs to even overdo what most of us think they will is easily there. It won’t even touch the team’s high water mark historically.

2024 is about this GM’s eye for the product he’s placed on the field. Everything that has been impossible to evaluate since 2020 will spend all year under the microscope. Big year in a lot of ways, and the excitement starts 5 days after the World Series. Buckle up.