3-22-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X
It’s probably not fair to ask the franchise that has provided a total of 4 seasons where they finished over .500 since 1992 to step up and do the heavy lifting for a down period in Pittsburgh Sports, but here we are.
The Steelers and Penguins both live in cap leagues, and unless you just can’t identify talent or stubbornly hold fast to methods of being victorious that no longer work, you should never really see either of them fall off the face of the earth. Rebuilding in cap leagues that also restrict how little you can spend is a different animal, designed to keep any team from overtly stinking for a decade. It doesn’t always equate to that mind you, but teams that fail can’t really blame the league and you also can’t point to their cheapness, at worst they’re paying 20 million less than the top spenders in the league.
The Pirates live in a league that has no such control. They have no impactful rules to keep the top spenders within shouting distance of the teams that don’t spend. That leaves the door open for an owner such as ours to decide taking very few risks and stinking for 5 years in an effort to be good for 4 or 5 is A-OK. Thing is, had they even been this successful, meaning they brought you a winner every 5 years like clockwork, most fans would probably accept it as their lot in life, but 4 out of 30+? Yeah, not so much.
I’ve never told fans they should enjoy this process, even as I myself have. Team building to me is fascinating, and while I’d prefer to just know my team is in a league that they’ve got a shot to win in every single year, I also happen to appreciate all the thought and effort that goes into this process. As I said, I also know it’s not for everyone.
Thing is though, the Pirates are finally ready to leave the wilderness, and as much as I loathe the structure of Major League Baseball, it’ll also set this team up for being well clear of those blinding woods for the next 4-5 years minimally, even if they don’t extend a single other player than they already have.
They may not get there this year, meaning over .500, but they won’t miss it by much if they don’t. The arrow is pointed up now and new players coming up officially have to be a better option than what is already here.
This just feels like a good time to look back on the path they’ve taken, ingest what it’s provided and start to judge whether it’ll be enough to get them to the next step, the playoffs.
I’ll have more on where I think they’ll land in my season preview, and I touched on some of my predictions for the season on The Pirates Fan Forum last night. So check that out if you just can’t wait, suffice to say 2024 is the first season since Ben Cherington came on board where I can legitimately look at the club and feel it isn’t insane to think they’ll crack .500 and in this division, that just might be close enough to see them push in some chips at the deadline.
They aren’t in the class of Atlanta, LA, San Fran, Philly, Arizona, maybe even San Diego, but they are in that next class of teams that could get a spot like the Cubs, Mets, teams like that who 10 games over might be the plateau for the season.
The starting rotation was the most concerning part of the team as we began the offseason, and it remains the most concerning part. What makes it different is the amount of options they have to do something about it should whomever they choose to start the season not pan out.
The lineup looks much stronger. There are very few spots where as a pitcher you can rest or try to get to. Work around Cruz, ok, face Reynolds. Nibble and let both of them reach base, ok, here’s Hayes, and Cutch, and Jack, and Henry, there just aren’t breaks. Even the bottom of the order should threaten. In other words, when they go to break and show you the next three due up on TV, you won’t often feel you can go make a sandwich and pee.
Sneaking into the playoffs, finishing over .500, competing for the division title but narrowly missing, those aren’t “winning” here in Pittsburgh, if they were nobody would think anything is wrong with the Steelers. I say that because the Pirates are poised for winning more than they have and doing something that for this franchise is very much so a step in the right direction. Next year, we could be having more conversations about expecting more, but this year has to happen first and while I feel they’ll achieve the very definition of “winning” in baseball, meaning finishing over .500, it won’t give them the mantle of savior of the city.
If anything, they’ll achieve not being forgotten as an entity to the masses of fans who only look in their direction when the 6 O’clock news tells them it’s worth looking.
This is an important year for the franchise and this roster reconstruction to be sure, but it’s going to likely be a bit of a stretch to think they’ll be seen as more than a team that played OK.
You’ll know different, because you know there’s more coming, and you know how soon. But it’ll take more, and more importantly stacking competitive seasons before this town wraps their arms back around this franchise.
Won’t it be great welcoming back all those fans who stopped watching in 2018? It’ll be like greeting a couple hundred people who just got off a time machine. They’ll have no idea where Jack Suwinski came from, no clue how they got this Jared Jones guy either. Who’s this Martin Perez fella? Hey, where’s Joe Musgrove?
I can’t wait. lol
Point is, don’t try to sell this team as Pittsburgh’s savior, it’s not, not yet anyway, and never forget the other teams have the ability to turn on a dime, because their league’s don’t require anything more than a front office that’s smart.
I’m starting to feel increasingly like for some reason Pittsburgh fans have decided to hate on each other. Steelers fans make fun of Pirates and Penguins fans because one is aging out and the other rarely has mattered. Penguins fans for the longest time were the ONLY winners in town at least if you count championships as the real definition of winning and they had a record setting playoff run. They’d crap on the Steelers for only making the playoffs, or barely surpassing .500.
How about we just be Pittsburgh fans. The teams support each other, maybe we fans should do the same. And as Pirates fans, I wouldn’t get too high on your horse even when this team is competing over this next stretch, because you can’t forget this league and this owner unless things change are more than a good bet, they’re a guarantee we’ll find our way back down the totem pole before too long.
I love all our sports teams, I want them all to win. Maybe because I was a teenager back in the early 90’s, I have actual memories of all three being in the conversation yearly. But as a Bucco fan, I for one am not planning on acting like this franchise is looking down their nose at the other two, no matter what happens, that stuff simply doesn’t do it for me.
This season will be a step, one that will set this franchise up for if not open their next competitive window. Enjoy it for what it is. Enjoy it for what you went through and put up with to get here. Enjoy it without having to pretend your rooting interests are superior to others.
And lastly, be as welcoming as you can. Know there will be people around who haven’t been paying attention and they aren’t going to get your Kai Tom joke. Oh, that one dude who’s been popping all over your timeline to tell you they’ll never do …., yeah, slap him around online for fun but when Betty from Dormont jumps on Facebook and asks where Cole Tucker is, maybe don’t start out by telling her how dumb she is huh?
The next good stretch of Pirates baseball very likely starts this year, let’s allow ourselves to feel rewarded for our suffering, instead of dreading the suffering returning. They’ll be in an at least OK spot for half a decade without much more than time and growth. Let’s try not to punish others for deciding they’d prefer to not suffer, instead just popping back in when they hear it’s ok to do so.
Steel City Pirates 