Time to Turn the Clocks Forward on the Pirates

3-10-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X

I was just having a conversation with my podcast partner Jim Stamm last week about Marco Gonzales. I’m sure you’re not riveted, but bear with me, I’m going somewhere I promise.

We were discussing what the Pirates would do if they got a month or two into the season and Marco just isn’t cutting it. A certainly reasonable supposition right? None of us hope that’s the outcome of course, but when you already feel something is likely, or even fairly plausible, it’s good to explore it.

The thing that caught me almost mid sentence was that we both, almost without thinking started making the assumption that the team would probably just keep trotting him out there, maybe even stick him in the pen.

Here’s the thing though, I don’t think that’s true anymore, not where they are now.

This isn’t 2021 anymore, and as much as I keep hearing pundits scream “It’s Year Fiiiiiiiiiivvvvvvvvveeeeee!” over and over like it’s some sure fire reason the team should be doing more, almost all of them, including me honestly, have completely neglected to think about some things that very likely will be different at this stage.

Let’s say for instance that the Pirates start the season with a rotation of Mitch Keller, Marco Gonzales, Martin Perez, Luis Ortiz and Roansy Contreras. Save your energy arguing about the last 2 on this list, it’s just laying a baseline for conversation.

Prior to this season, we’re probably really safe making the assumption that even performing poorly the Pirates would push through with Marco. Deal with his issues, maybe piggyback him, essentially make sure they got their 3 million dollars worth. In addition, prior to this year if looking to make a change, you’re likely looking at an NRI who was plopped in AAA or a prospect probably not ready for primetime as your primary options for an upgrade.

Well, this year, it won’t be easy to ignore that they do very much so have options. More than that, it’ll be hard to not recognize that the team around this struggling player has more talent than it has in close to a decade. Meaning, it’s not just about the money, it’s also about not wasting the talent they have amassed.

This franchise can’t afford to make that mistake. And it will outweigh the fact Bob might weep over 3 million dollars being wasted. Before your inevitable joke, he ate more than that just firing Neal Huntington and Frank Coonelly.

It’s the same reason, despite all the GM and Manager double talk, Henry Davis will easily win and hold the starting catching job on this club, because he’s the best one they have and there’s little to no benefit to going another direction.

If Marco struggles, this team will have, in my scenario of the original starting rotation anyway, Quinn Priester in reserve. If he was the only one, ok, maybe you sit on your hands and let Marco struggle a bit longer. You know, the thinking being, you’re stranded in the woods with one flare to fire, so you better make sure someone is around to see it before you fire it. If you have 3 or 4, ok, maybe you fire one off early on. Use one to start a fire and so on and so forth.

That’s the position the Pirates are in entering 2024, they do have 3 or 4. They can afford to fire off a quick one just hoping. In fact, in their case, they can’t afford not to, the food rations are running very low.

Jared Jones and Paul Skenes are going to be very hard to hold back if they stay healthy and I could add more to that list, it just isn’t necessary to make the point.

If the team scores runs the way it looks like this offense could, pitching can’t be allowed to let them down. Further, if the Pirates offense is struggling but for some reason we’ve all been dead wrong and the pitching is killing it, well, it’ll be hard to keep guys like Cheng or Termarr from getting a crack if they look like they deserve one.

You don’t have to believe everything is going to go the Pirates way in 2024, I certainly don’t, but you do have to see they have an awful lot more options than they did just a year or two ago, and they have enough established talent already here that there is ample pressure to not waste an opportunity.

The killer here is, all of these factors should have probably seen the club add more pieces this offseason to address the holes they had.

For that reason alone, your skepticism they’ll do the right thing should a guy like Gonzales struggle is well earned.

One final point.

Last year when the club started 20-8 Ben Cherington famously said they, meaning the team, didn’t expect that in 2023. They didn’t expect that the 2023 team was going to compete for anything meaningful and as if upholding their prophesy was of primary importance, the team did nothing to fortify the club after that start, nothing to push for a goal they didn’t set before that historic start.

This year, they do believe they have a team that can compete for a playoff spot, and even the division title. On the record.

This should spark a change in how they handle fortifying the club as the season rolls on.

Should and would aren’t the same thing of course, but the context clues are all there.

Long story short, as we look at individual situations that crop up as the year rolls along, I encourage you to not shut yourself off to every possible option, if only because I don’t believe the team will at this point.