The Pirates Outfield Has a Problem, but its Actually a Good One

04/09/2024 – Ethan Smith – @mvp_EtHaN

The 2024 campaign has brought a ton of fun for the Pittsburgh Pirates thus far, as they are off to their first 9-2 start since 1992, the last time they won a division, with that division being the NL East and also featuring the Montreal Expos, so yea, its been awhile.

A big part of that success has been getting contributions from everyone on the roster, from back-end bullpen pieces to the multitude of outfield options at their disposal, the discussion I want to have with you today.

Since Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco, the Pirates have had a good mix of talent in the outfield, but nothing that has stuck at all three positions to be a cohesive unit.

We’ve seen Bryan Reynolds perform for quite awhile now, but he’s truly the only outfielder since that trio that’s stuck around long-term. The rest of the outfield has remained a question mark throughout his tenure in Pittsburgh, but in the present day, other questions have risen from the group that don’t have much to do about performance.

The Pirates outfield group right now consists of Reynolds, Jack Suwinski, Michael A. Taylor, Connor Joe and Edward Olivares, and heck, I’d even throw McCutchen in that conversation as well. Its a group that may not feature household names, but what I can tell you is that the majority of the league would take this outfield group over there’s in a heartbeat.

Reynolds will always be out there in some capacity, be it in either left field or right field, which we’ve seen both of early on this year.

The rest though, is where the question marks arise.

Suwinski is not good against left-handed pitching, and that’s no secret seeing as he has a career .179 average versus left-handers. Meanwhile, you enter Taylor, who struggles versus right-handed pitching with a career .233 average.

One would think Taylor was brought in to platoon with Suwinski in center field, and we have seen that dynamic play out thus far, as Taylor has 20 at-bats versus righties opposed to 8 at-bats versus lefties, while Suwinski has 27 at-bats versus righties opposed to 11 versus lefties.

So you can see Derek Shelton’s plan with center field is to have each guy face pitching they are good hitting against, but another dynamic comes into play when talking about the center field platoon.

Suwinski has light-tower power, that’s for certain, but he is not the greatest defender by any means out in center. Suwinski already has a -3 OAA this year with a -2 fielding run value via StatCast, so you derive that he just doesn’t have a plus glove.

Meanwhile Taylor’s calling card has and always will be his defense in center field, as he’s posted a +1 OAA already and has had higher than a +5 OAA or higher the past three seasons. He has also gotten a hot start with the bat this year, posting a .974 OPS through his first 32 plate appearances.

You can also tell the defense is lacking when Taylor isn’t out there, and Pittsburgh is averaging 0.91 errors per game at the moment, but that’s an entirely different conversation for another piece.

Suwinski and Taylor offer entirely different skillsets, which isn’t a bad thing whatsoever, but we haven’t seen Taylor since home Opening Day on Friday, but with right-handers on the mound since then, its no surprise. So I imagine the platoon dynamic between the two will continue, but if the defensive woes continue, I would imagine you see more of Taylor moving forward.

Now notice this is before I even mention the right field options, which would include Joe, Olivares and McCutchen.

Joe has created somewhat of a trend opening 2024, as the Pirates are currently 9-0 when he is inserted into the starting lineup and 0-2 when he isn’t. Is that more coincidence or is his inclusion actually that important?

Well, Joe has a .985 OPS over 45 plate appearances to start the year while being average defensively with a 0 OAA, so his inclusion in the lineup hasn’t been an accident, he’s producing, and producing in high leverage spots.

Its early, but in 18 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, Joe is hitting .538 with a 1.513 OPS and 6 RBIs, so he’s not only been beginning a trend of winning, but he’s also been productive.

Meanwhile Olivares, who currently ranks in the 100th percentile in xBA and sweet spot percentage, has made quite the impact as well, posting a .804 OPS through 26 plate appearances. He has seen about equal work against both right-handers and left-handers as well, with 12 at-bats versus left-handers and 14 at-bats versus right-handers.

Olivares, much like Suwinski, is not known for his defense at all, so you sacrifice that with him in right field, but his power potential and so far, his ability to hit well against both left-handers and right-handers, makes it hard to keep him out of the lineup.

McCutchen has had a slow start to his 2024 campaign but has picked it up as of late as he is still in search for his 300th career home run.

He’s barreling up the ball at a 15.4 percent rate(88th percentile), but his 37.9 percent strikeout rate has been worrisome as he’s had issues catching up to the fastball.

We’ve seen Shelton have a willingness to sit McCutchen already this year, and with the other options available and playing well, it makes total sense.

Now McCutchen is a notoriously slow starter in his career, having hit below .256 in March/April in every season since 2017, so its a wonder as to if its his age catching up to him or a normal outcome based on his career outputs.

McCutchen has primarily been the designated hitter as well, with Tellez playing more first base defensively than I think we all expected, but one has to wonder if that spot has to open up to Olivares or Suwinski, who again lack defensive prowess, but can offer offensive output.

So in the headline, I said the outfield has a problem, but its a good problem, a problem any team in MLB would love to have, because the Pirates currently have five real outfield options for Shelton to play with everyday.

For instance in today’s matchup with Detroit, you’re getting Suwinski in left field, Taylor in center field and Olivares in right field with Reynolds DH’ing, so the Pirates can find ways to get all of these outfielders involved, and if they continue to produce, it will continue to be a good problem for your Pittsburgh Pirates to have.