7-1-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X
The Pirates did some good work since we last met up in this space. Yeah, they lost 2 of 3 to the Braves, but they nipped the Reds again too. Now the Cardinals come to town, because Pirates vs Cardinals on the 4th is about as close to watching the good guys kick some redcoat ass as I’ll come in my lifetime.
The surging and possibly McDonalds fueled Mets come next then the Brewers and White Sox. This stretch here, could flatly determine how the deadline plays out for this team.
Lets go!
1. Who Might the Pirates Trade from the 26-man?
Here’s the thing, I know what many fans think, they have a bunch of rentals they signed and they’ll trade them all of course, regardless of any other factor. That’s not the truth, but it is what you’ve been taught to assume. I mean, the Fan, or whoever you see on the 6 o’clock news probably didn’t understand why guys were moved in 2021, and that of course won’t make them understand why any of them would be moved in 2024.
From Spring, I’ve been saying, the team could very well move “rentals” even as they acquire more talent at the same time. I put it forward as a possibility because if everything went great, I thought that’s very much so where they could be, and to a degree, that’s what these 13 games will give us a much better look at.
Let’s talk about what would trigger each potentially being moved.
Rental
Rowdy Tellez – For Rowdy to be moved, the team would have to either have plans to acquire, or have acquired a better left handed first baseman. The month of July could see Rowdy revert and in that case, he may be cast off regardless of the return. I think he stays unless he has a downturn from June that looks like April/May or they upgrade.
Michael A. Taylor – He’s been awful really, if they can find a taker, here’s hoping they take it. If not, CF has to be something they try to upgrade. In it or out of it, I’m not sure I see a place for Michael.
Ryan Borucki – He hasn’t pitched most of the season and he’ll easily get an MLB job from someone next year, without a tryout or NRI. For Ryan to be moved the team would have to feel they’re out of it, and even then, they might just keep him and move the pricier lefty.
Aroldis Chapman – It’s become a yearly tradition, but if the Pirates are in it, he’ll be here and part of it in all likelihood.
Yasmani Grandal – At some point the Pirates will need to make a move to call Henry Davis back up to MLB. He’s their best bet at offensive production from Catcher, and yes, I did watch him play this year. He’s important, and I can’t see Grandal surviving this roster, not after Joey Bart turned out to be better than they’ve had at backup.
Marco Gonzales – Hurt most of the season, and when he comes back, he could help provide valuable rest for the Pirates young staff, but I could picture a world where Marco is a target for a fringe team in the Wild Card race, come to think of it, that’s kinda us.
Martin Perez – Much like Gonzales, but Perez brings bullpen experience to the table too. There could be a legitimate market for Martin, and the Pirates might be smart to move him regardless of where they are in the standings.
2. Elephant in the Room
Of all the underperformances this season, Jack Suwinski no longer has a dance partner. Others have not lived up to expectation, others have struggled for large swaths, but nobody has had what appeared to be a pretty firm lock on hitting 25 homeruns in this league and fallen as far as Jack.
He was called back up to MLB after an injury to Ji Hwan Bae (who didn’t do much himself, but I digress) and for some reason, he’s still here, kinda doing next to nothing.
The Pirates have Josh Palacios, Ji Hwan Bae (see earlier), and Matt Gorski who could play CF to varying degrees and none of them are a sure fire better bet. Still, Jack has really not done much to show he’s turning a corner.
If you want an excuse, it’s probably much like Rowdy, they planned on getting something from him, they haven’t, nobody else they have to turn to can provide specifically what they wanted to get from Jack.
I can’t see this going beyond the deadline either way. Although, I suppose I could say if you’re going to play one CF who isn’t hitting, maybe pick the one who might be here in 2025.
Weird handling all year really. From not playing him like at all in the opening series after having him face everyone all Spring long, to this inexplicable prolonged failure to even look like a talented rookie.
3. Ke’Bryan Hayes Needs a Mission
Let’s take Ke’Bryan Hayes and help get him going and fix the terrible bottom of the order at the same time. I’d put Hayes 7 or 8 in the order and split up the valley of nothingness that part of the order has become. Even as Hayes has struggled, he’s a step above what’s down there and he could help make it less of a destination for opposing pitchers to work around others and hopefully get an easy out of a jam.
Make it his mission this year to help that bottom 3 look less toothless. Let him own it, responsible for it. Anything to cut down on having an area of nothingness.
At this point, I don’t care why Hayes is a bottom of the order hitter. Health, just being a poor hitter, whatever, it hardly matters because the fact is, he’s hitting like one, and if he’s more capable than that, well, let him hit his way out of the bottom third.
Does this mean he has a worse hitter ahead of him somewhere, oh yeah, but it also gives him a chance to find his way with less pressure. The best thing that could happen is Hayes finds a way to get productive again.
4. Pitching Injury Armageddon?
The Pirates announced a rash of minor league pitching IL trips over the weekend. Guys like Braxton Ashcraft, Sean Sullivan, David Matoma, and others.
I can’t tell you none of these are real injuries, nobody can or will in fact, but I can say, it’s very likely this is nothing more than trying to give guys extra rest around the All Star Break.
Again, I can’t tell you none of this is real, at this point in a season, technically everyone who plays the game could probably be shut down for some ailment.
This is one of those “baseball things” that fans tend to struggle to understand, or at least accept, but I’d rather try to address it head on than to have most of you assume the evil puppet master who controls our team had the voodoo dolls working overtime again.
5. The Lack of Urgency Happened This Winter
Listen, no matter what you think, the trade market opens when it opens. Wanting teams to make moves now because you want to be urgent, doesn’t make them have the same urgency. Spending more than anyone else would right now is the one way, and frankly, even then for the top targets, zero chance they pull the trigger without seeing alternative offers.
That’s not how baseball works. And Should be, well, it really doesn’t matter.
The team you assemble in the Winter is your team. You can adjust from within, you can take castoffs form elsewhere, but by in large, your team is what you put together.
There’ll be surprise contributions earlier than you thought, and there’ll be guys who flatly don’t provide a quarter of what you planned on.
To a degree, a GM that thinks his or her team should be in the conversation has to build up enough to weather storms and keep the team in the hunt until the trade market opens, then, if what he built is really going to do anything, that base will be what got them there. The Pirates need help, and this base needs to prove the help needs to come right now, this July.
The fact is, it’s a bet and Ben made some bad ones. Ones that I’d have made too mind you in many cases. Some I wouldn’t have.
Point is, this offseason was the time to have urgency. Now is the time to deal with the repercussions for not having more then to a degree, and to hope you at least did enough to still be in position to fix it.
It’s also not a time I personally am going to get mad about. I’ve wanted a team in the fight, and I have one. I’m hardly going to complain because they didn’t leapfrog the league and go from bottom 5 to top 5.
Steel City Pirates 