7-8-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X
I know it’s frustrating for fans to feel like their team has some pieces in place, yet not see the team surround those pieces with some established talent.
I also know why exactly it has to be.
See, almost no matter what happens with this build good or bad is going to come from kids. It has to be that way, because the Pirates simply aren’t going to raise payroll dramatically. And if you aren’t going to do that in an environment where a closer gets a 4 year 100 million dollar deal, well, complain all you want, this team whether true or not simply doesn’t feel they can spend their way into this conversation.
They aren’t alone, the Red Sox this offseason made a statement to their fans that is absolutely representative of what you’ve watched in Pittsburgh. And yes, they still outspend the Pirates by a country mile, that’s not the point.
This isn’t to make you feel better, but it’s very much so evidence that teams all over the spectrum, all over the league are shunning the mediocre free agent market in lieu of cheaper, less experienced players, potentially with higher ceilings, also just as potentially, too green to carry a load unless lightning strikes. I’d also say the COVID season both in College and the Pros caused some teams to have to stunt the timeline on development as the league didn’t adjust the calendar for rule 5. Less experience was forced onto 40-man rosters, and damnit, teams hate not at least trying that.
The Pirates knocked out some of this stuff last year by having Peguero, Gonzales, Davis, Priester, Ortiz, Contreras, Oviedo, Rodriguez, Triolo and Suwinski all get significant playing time, unfortunately it’s not benefited everyone equally. Some players have really embraced whatever role they were handed like Gonzales and Ortiz, others have struggled to recapture the bit of success they tasted, got injured or have yet to force their way back onto the roster.
Some of them stunk, some of them showed flashes, but more than anything most of them to some degree had the league punch them in the face somewhere along the line.
There is no way to avoid this. Oh, you can catch a phenom, like Acuna, Strider, Julio, you know, the few, the proud? There just aren’t all that many. Here we are with Skenes and Jones.
In fact, all the energy the Reds had last year came from kids, and they brought up so many, they almost masked each others downfalls. When one struggled, someone else didn’t much of the time. Most of them have returned and faced higher volumes of experience, and many of them have experienced what the league does to a player they’ve got even a thin book on.
They’re talented kids, I’m sure plenty of them will see their way through it and come back in 2025 all the stronger but they eventually for the most part got served a bit early in 2024.
The Pirates youngsters have and will do the same. As good a Paul Skenes is this year, I guarantee he learned that MLB hitters will be as geared up as they can get in the first at bat of the game, best not start with a straight fastball down the middle. Jared Jones went from blowing everyone away with heat to working backwards the majority of at bats. I mean look at the growth of Nick Gonzales this season. How about Luis Ortiz who took being a bullpen arm in stride, excelled, got another chance to work bulk, excelled, and now he’s going to start again because the team needs him, and he didn’t shrink from the challenges he faced.
We’ll focus on the ones that didn’t grow or didn’t look ready for the spotlight, and that’s all well and good, that’s important too, but there have been some success stories. And 9 times out of 10, for every youngster who starts showing he belongs, everyone involved was worried he wasn’t ready, even Paul Skenes had his group that never stopped believing his fastball didn’t move enough. Every good player was once a kid who had to prove himself.
There always has to be room for onboarding kids, it’s a part of this game the Pirates or any team for that matter can’t afford to skip.
This is going to wind up being a big story again in 2025, the catching position is still not a finished product. We probably can say Henry Davis, Endy Rodriguez and Joey Bart could all be involved but there is going to have to come growth, onboarding, patience, hope, all the trappings of a good old fashioned development effort. And it HAS to happen.
They’ll always be working on a project somewhere, and that’s not a bad thing, some of them will be the stars we cheer for 5 years from now.
The Rebuild is over, but the build will never end, not truly.
Steel City Pirates 