The Pirates Lack Urgency. What Does that Mean Anyway?

6-1-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

A team lacking urgency tends to describe a club that isn’t making moves to address issues with their team. At the very least, not fast enough for fans.

What it means this year though, is that local journalists and bloggers and radio hosts, and podcasters and regular fans dahn at Primanti’s, have decided two things. First, that the team saying “competitive” meant World Series now. Second, regardless of what the team said, it’s been deemed by the experts, you know, that list of folks I rattled off up there that YEaeaeeeaerrrrr Fieieeiiiiivvvvvvveee! or bust is a thing.

I mean, subscribe to whatever theory you want, you’re welcome to it. I’m just explaining where it comes from.

We first heard it mentioned this offseason. A team entering Spring Training with “A historically bad rotation”, what a joke right? They have no sense of urgency if they don’t sign Jordan Montgomery! The least they could do is sign Michael Lorenzen, and the rotation would still suck! Bailey Falter has no business on this roster! How can you tell me you want to win and then roster a stiff like Bailey Falter.

Remember all that? Remember it was Mitch and nobody else? Remember how irresponsible they were? How much they didn’t care. How incompetent they were for thinking it had a chance to succeed?

Listen, I understand the frustration, I really do but what some of you see as “urgency” well, some of them are the opposite of ugency.

I just had someone suggest to me tonight that the Pirates should DFA Rowdy Tellez and replace him with recently released Ji-man Choi. A man who couldn’t crack the wretched Mets lineup. A man who was hitting .190 in AAA for the Mets, someone actually said to me “couldn’t be worse”. LOL, why is that the argument? Is that what urgency is to you? Replacing someone who hasn’t hit with another guy who hasn’t hit at a lower level?

You don’t need to force another bad player onto this team to want Rowdy DFA’d, in fact you don’t even have to find another 1B really. Why cloud it in some pining for players who aren’t going to help?

Jake Lamb can’t be worse, look what he’s doing in AAA! OK, again, I quite literally don’t care, but don’t paint that with some air of urgency either for me. In 2022 in AAA with the Dodgers, Lamb tore it up, .290 average, 15 homeruns, .932 OPS, and when an injury cropped up he got a shot with the Blue and they traded him to the Mariners, he did this… .216 Average, 3 HR, .707 OPS.

In 2023 he was in the minors with both the Yankees and Angels, Again, he hit well, .289 AVG, .874 OPS, 11 HR, you know, pretty damn good. Again, he gets a shot this time with the Angels, .216 AVG, .612 OPS, 2 HR.

Better than Tellez, likely. As much power as a even playing halfway decent Tellez, no way. Even so, make the change, just don’t tell me it’s in the name of urgency, it’s more grasping at straws than anything and relatively inconsequential when Connor Joe would likely remain the starter anyhow.

Whoever first uttered this word and started the ball rolling, probably had a good point when they brought it up, but it’s since been bastardized, overused and dumbed down into pretending an Oreo is the greatest cookie ever made but the Hydrox cookie is complete crap. They’re the same damn cookie, one just costs a buck less.

A sense of urgency to me is starting Jared Jones out of camp, and ignoring Super 2 crap to call up Paul Skenes. It’s having a stated goal of getting Nick Gonzales 200 at bats in AAA and changing course when the offense struggled and he did anything but.

Feels to me like we mistake lack of urgency for poor decisions and the time it takes to change course.

I mean, take Nick Gonzales, he entered this Spring being talked about as trade bait, or a bust. Another example of the Pirates failed development system. Peguero and Triolo were light years ahead of him, hell Bae was too at least he could play the outfield too.

A month and a half later, he’s a legitimate example of the team showing the positive side of urgency.

Look, here’s the truth.

This team plans to be a .500 team this year. If they are, and come deadline time they look like they’re on that track with this pitching staff they’ll go add some pieces, not unlike Marlin Byrd or Tommy Pham, or whatever, some first baseman like Lamont Wade Jr. Grab a couple relievers maybe. Try to make a wild card run. Around .500 will be in that conversation.

That’s what they’re trying to do. And they’re trying to do as much of it with young controllable players as they possibly can. The more they pull this off, the better they are for a longer period of time.

The best acquisitions they’ll likely get this year will be a Henry Davis with a rediscovered swing, regardless of where or what he plays, and Jack Suwinski back to hitting homeruns, even if it’s just the streaky kid he was in 2023.

This isn’t a great ballclub. There are only a few of those this year. The Dodgers, Braves, Phillies, Orioles, Yankees, Guardians and maybe Brewers but man, I don’t think I’d go great with them. There are a few teams that stink, will stink, and actively want to stink, like Angels, White Sox, Marlins, Rockies, A’s.

Then there’s everyone else. Most of those teams are either spending a bunch and not getting results. Trying to grow internal players and going through growing pains. Or Both.

That’s a whole lot of teams still trying to figure out which side of the fence they’re going to land on, a whole lot of teams that should probably be more urgent. Problem is, you have to have teams that know they aren’t going anywhere, identify players they both have and are willing to move and then you have to decide how much you’re willing to give up.

There are about 10-15 teams in this purgatory.

All their fans feel the same way. There is no way there without patience. Giving up on young players too quickly defeats the purpose of rebuilding in the first place. That doesn’t always look pretty in fact sometimes it’s really a waste of time, unfortunately there’s only one way to find out. That’s right, making you watch a kid try to learn against the best players in the world.

Is it lack of urgency to continue to try to get Oneil Cruz to hit lefties, or is it answering a question you simply have to have answered. Is it lack of urgency to keep running Old Guy Andrew McCutchen out there when he can’t catch up to fastballs anymore, and he can’t run, he’s not even drawing walks? Or is it knowing what’s in there and being patient because you have good reason to expect the results will come and you’ve banked on the contribution?

Urgent but smart. Easy to say, hard to live up to. Trade pitching close to MLB for help in MLB and you’re a TJ or two from looking like an ill prepared moron. Don’t make a deal for fear of what might be and risk not doing enough to really give what you have built a chance to overachieve.

It’s more than a buzz word. It’s certainly more than swapping a scrub for a scrub. Face the reality of what this season is or don’t, that’s up to you. I’m just going to be over here enjoying my team as it continues to improve.