11-4-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter
There was no chance I was going to get through all offseason without making one of these Led Zeppelin themed. Simply too influential of a band for me to pass by, and if I’m honest, creatively speaking, the song titles make for some easy subjects.
Let’s go, in case you can’t tell, MLB isn’t being shy about getting the offseason started, and yes, it’s completely appropriate to at least wonder if the Pirates will, much like their offensive approach, see too many pitches go by before swinging in desperation.
1. Ten Years Gone
If you claim to be a Zep fan and don’t know songs from Physical Graffiti, well, you really won’t like references to Coda. Now, this title to me is a beautiful way to describe what happens to an MLB franchise that decides to blow up a team and build through the draft and trade pieces. Ok, the teams that aren’t going to spend more than the bare minimum anyway.
When one of these builds, or rebuilds, or retools or whatever marketing word they use fails, it’s immediately 10 years gone for fans of those teams.
In baseball, it can take 4 years just to see if someone you drafted might wind up being at least league average ya know? You can come in and fire every coach, scout, assistant to the regional assistant in charge of hiring assistants, you know, everyone, and let’s be real, it’ll be at least 2-3 years before you really know if you’ve replaced them wisely, or perhaps acted rashly with a few guys because you didn’t really know them first.
It’s one of the biggest reasons this method of building a championship team tends to not achieve it’s stated goal. Rarely do these teams look at what 5-6 years has produced, kinda like where we are with Cherington right now, see no seasons over .500 and think either that this GM or a new one can rescue it.
In fact, this owner most likely has no idea what he’s looking at to say either way.
This isn’t just hard because they don’t spend on the way, it’s hard because by the time you can call it success or failure, everyone involved is at the end of their rope, and patience. Fans especially.
When I tell you I have no way to know how Cherington will react to this offseason, I mean, he’s either going to double down that he’s right, and he’s going to do very little in an effort to hold onto his dream of a sustainable, long term winning conveyor belt. He’d essentially be saying, 1 more year and everyone will understand.
Or, he could feel cornered and come out looking for something “big” in a trade. In this case, he’d both be recognizing and admitting we aren’t where we need to be, and it won’t happen organically. He’d also be letting go to a degree at least that this has more than a window in it.
2. When The Levee Breaks
When your team is relying on young talent to start coalescing into more than some primordial ooze of players, it’s obvious you must have patience. It’s very hard to do, and there are times when you as a team simply can’t afford to wait.
Sometimes it’s about the skill sets you see that determines how many chances you give a guy. At times you’ll see a kid come up and do incredible things and if you aren’t careful, you’ll start to chase the dragon for 3-4 years trying to get him to duplicate a performance that really probably wasn’t quite as promising as you thought at the time anyway.
For me, “the Levee Broke” for me with Ji Hwan Bae last year. It was his third opportunity to show his skills could translate to MLB. In that time, he could have embraced a contact hitter approach, really honed his base stealing chops, dug in on utilizing his speed to become an elite defender in center. He could have done any of that stuff, or at least I’d have liked to see him try. Instead, I saw the same kid, fast as hell, scared to take off, doesn’t get on enough for it to matter even if he did. Saw the same bad routes in the outfield, the same inadequate double play turns at second. To me, I don’t rule out that someone will get through to him and turn him into a good baseball player, but I don’t any longer see it being here.
Next year, Jack Suwinski is in this zone for me.
Connor Joe was another Levee guy for me in 2024. I needed to see more of a complete season from him and even when he was used more like a bench player late in the season it too didn’t suit him or help him. I don’t think this was ever going to be a player who stayed here longer than arbitration was on the table and at that, he’d almost need to remain a bench type. To me, it was proven to me he doesn’t have a full strong season in him, and even if he did, it’s not good enough.
I’m probably there with Cruz next year in a way. Not that he’s a bust or would be, but next year, he needs to show us what a full season of healthy Oneil at the plate looks like. And it’d be nice if we knew he didn’t have to be a DH.
3. Fool in the Rain
Let’s get nuts. Let’s trade and let’s see if we can’t find deals that work for both teams. Not really my forte, but I’m kinda the only one active on the site right now, so let’s go…
Orioles Receive – SP Bubba Chandler
Pirates Receive – 3B/1B Coby Mayo
That’s it, straight up. We need hitting, they need pitching, a direct swap of top prospects with just about full compliments of team control.
I’d offer the same thing to Boston for Roman Anthony, but I think they’d balk even thought they too need starting pitching. Roman is not a prospect that gets traded, bluntly, Bubba might not be either, but we’re being crazy right?
Guardians Receive – SP Anthony Solometo and SS Tsung-Che Cheng
Pirates Receive – 1B Josh Naylor
Josh is a pending free agent following 2025, but he won’t break the bank, can play first base and if you like him, hey, step up and pay him. This takes two guys who are still relatively high ranking prospects relative to the Pirates system that probably aren’t on a path I can see clearly as we sit here. In other words, I think they still have value, I just don’t see them making it here for whatever reason.
This isn’t a long term answer unless the Pirates make it one, but he has some of that Guardians ball intel and I’d love to see if it could help this team. Worst case scenario, he walks for a comp pick as a FA, and hopefully you have Endy Rodriguez or Bryan Reynolds, or Henry or Joey Bart or Jared Triolo, ready and more of a good bet for 2026. Best case, you like what he does and keep him around for a few years.
It’s hard for me to believe that even as a rental the Guardians wouldn’t have a couple offers and as long as I’m not offering up one our our top prospects, I’m OK with more than one mid tier players.
4. Whole Lotta Love
It was such an out of nowhere treat to find out yesterday that Jared Triolo won the National League Utility Man Gold Glove Award. To win a gold glove as a rookie is pretty nuts to begin with, but, well, Alex does a great job of explaining exactly why it really was incredibly impressive.
Now, here’s the weird thing. I bet by a virtual show of hands, there aren’t too many fans out there who think of Jared as a piece moving forward. I think this much is fair to say about Jared Triolo.
In his rookie season he bounced all over the diamond, played premium defense. The team learned in year 1, there is hardly a position that Jared Triolo couldn’t man capably.
The bat, had ups and downs. He looked off all season long and then finished the season strong once Ke’Bryan Hayes went to the IL. Most of his best hitting has come while manning Third Base. If he can continue to grow his swing into his frame, he could really have some untapped power, if he just becomes a slap hitter and on base guy, great, he’s fast enough to make that count too.
I’m actually excited to see what he grows into. Really excited for a new hitting coach to get a hold of him to.
5. Over the Hills and Far Away
It’s time for baseball to finally do more than list Dave Parker on the ballot, it’s time to elect the Cobra to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I’d read you all his accomplishments but c’mon, we do this every year.
For a while there, he was THE best hitter in the game. He has a colorful history primarily with two of the oldest franchises in the game.
In a 19-year career, Parker finished with a .290 batting average, 2,712 hits, 339 home runs, 1,493 RBIs and 1,272 runs scored.
It’s not going to stack up with everyone who’s in. It wasn’t going to be about his cumulative stats as much as how important he was during his prime.
Just during his 11 years in Pittsburgh, the Pirates won the NL East three times, and finished second three times too, listen, you’ve been here a while, think about that level of success with this franchise.
It’s time. Again.
Steel City Pirates 