2-29-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X
Take off your fan hat for just a second here, and try to put yourself in the shoes of the few players who have been here for most of, if not all of this rebuild.
Ke’Bryan Hayes, Bryan Reynolds, Mitch Keller, go ahead and toss in David Bednar if you like, these guys are now seen as the veteran core of this baseball club, and not 3 or 4 years ago they were all youngsters striving to make their mark, or to maybe even to just make it in general.
They’ve still got something to prove, you do every year to a degree right? I mean, Cody Bellinger won the MVP, Rookie of the Year, Looked like he’d cash in big time with Big Blue in LA and then for some reason, everything left him. The average, the power, the contact, the confidence. That could happen to anyone, any year, they all know it, they all work hard to make sure it isn’t them.
Now, they’re seeing a new group come on the scene and unlike when they did it, this crew has something they didn’t, first, they have a lot more company than the original group did, and second, they also have, well, them.
These kids are walking in to a roster that has already has proof they’ll extend someone. They’re entering a team trying to build, not deconstruct.
So yeah, there’s excitement surrounding the team. To this roster, you get the impression they’re taking this leap year thing rather seriously.
Some of that is just Spring, I clearly remember hearing players talk glowingly about how hard Phillip Evans worked, or how great Yajure’s off speed stuff is. You know, you’ve heard it too. But man, it’s different hearing them talk now, even the prospects are kind of enamored with what some of the others can do.
I mean, listen to how Ke’Bryan describes the way it’s different for him now.
He talks about how his goals for this year are different. That’s natural, he’s not some kid trying to make a club anymore, now he’s an established player who is turning his eyes to winning, and one big reason is the leap in talent this roster has undergone. Far too slow to fans of course, but thinking back about how again just a couple short years ago, Ke’ himself was that kid with all the potential, the one who was going to start turning things around. I heard one journalist say on his daily podcast that the “window would be open as long as Ke’Bryan Hayes was a Pirate”.
There have certainly been challenges since then. Injuries, offensive droughts, completely sapped of power, questions about whether his very team friendly contract had been a mistake.
He was the first of this core to decide Pittsburgh was where he wanted to do this, and he didn’t think that meant no championship.
These kids, sure believe, here’s Jared Jones after his outing today in Bradenton. “Yeah, I mean, we’re all really good pitchers. It’s fun to be in the same clubhouse with a lot of these guys. We all just have the same mindset of getting after it and competing. It’s fun to see.”
Here’s Quinn after the game, sound like a kid who thinks he’s working toward nothing?
Listen, again, I know you heard all that same confidence from guys like Cody Bolton, or even Mitch Keller….oops, bad example, Mitch kinda did get there didn’t he, and we’d do well to remember just how long it’s taken to start accepting someone like Reynolds is a good player, because while we’re on boarding these kids it’s crucial to keep in mind you shouldn’t be expecting these guys to hit their ceiling this year, just maybe hope for a leap toward it.
Maybe the biggest leaps will be taken by someone like Ke’Bryan, he’s shown signs that he’s found what unlocks him at the plate, he’s an elite defender, honestly, he’s evolved to the point where his ceiling is likely in sight. You could be on the verge of seeing peak Hayes for the very first time, and when you do, don’t be shocked if it looks a ton like that 20 some year old kid who was called up to play in front of nobody for a months worth of games in 2020.
The journey will always be there, but when his career story is written, most fans won’t ever think of them again, if, he takes the next leap.
This year isn’t the end of this story, it’s just the next chapter. Enough of these kids take a leap, and so does this team. Some of these veterans reach one step closer to, or actually attain their ceilings and they go even further.
Unfortunately, therein lies the story of baseball, not everyone trends in the right direction.
Once every 4 years we get an extra day, and this year that’ll give us a baseball game with Paul Skenes making his Spring Training debut, a perfect metaphor for what this year is all about.
Steel City Pirates 