Five Pirates Thoughts at Five – Veterans Day Edition

11-11-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter

There are times when I feel like Liam Nissan in Love Actually looking at his step-son saying “We need Kate, we need Leo, and we need them now”.

On this Veterans Day, and after an emotional week, we need some Johnny Cash, and we need him now.

More of a poem then a song really, but nonetheless a story of how resilient we as a people are, and how much we have that makes us one great nation, bound by the very chaos that makes some of us feel so uneasy.

If you served, thank you. If someone in your family did, thank you for being their support system back home. If you just live here and enjoy your freedoms without a second thought, well, they fought for you too.

Now onto our Buccos, and some more great Johnny Cash tunes to keep us in line.

1. God’s Gonna Cut You Down

It’s not just one of Bryan Reynolds’ old walk up songs, it’s a bitter pill of a song, meant to be ingested by anyone who feels they’re at the top of the world, untouchable in their minds by any sort of reckoning.

In baseball, getting humbled is a big part of the journey for everyone, none more so then those who have tasted a bit of success too, so let’s use this section to talk about some guys who got smacked in the face by the game in 2024 and how likely it is they come out of it in 2025.

Jack Suwinski – In 2023, Jack showed a ton of promise hitting 26 bombs in 144 games, and it followed a rookie campaign in which he pounded 19 in only 106 games. Neither of these came with average or even OPS really, he clearly needed to clean some things up to take a step. Well, 2024 was a step in the wrong direction and the Pirates will probably hope that’s primarily all this was, a bad step. He’s worth more time and effort, but the team is short on having both to offer.

Ke’Bryan Hayes – We all know about Ke’s injury issue, and maybe that issue in and of itself is at least partially responsible for his poor performance at the plate, either way, this isn’t the result the Pirates or Ke’Bryan thought they’d get from his extension. Offensively speaking, 2023 was his coming out party, and most of us who watched it know it was a tale of two seasons in reality. No matter what, the Pirates need Ke’Bryan to at least rebound to the point where his contract is movable. Big year for Hayes, following a real smack in the face campaign.

David Bednar – The Renegade went from a hometown pride to a painful reminder that it’s just a song if it doesn’t end in wins, and far too often “Renegade” was met with at best the team holding on for extra innings. The stuff is still there for David, the command issues and tipping stuff, well, that’s how he got cut down isn’t it? A David Bednar who looks much more like himself would be a huge pickup this offseason many of us have already given up on.

Who would you name here? Remember, to fit this category, they have to have done something in the league in the past and now they have to recover from a reckoning.

2. A Boy Named Sue

At it’s core, A Boy Named Sue is a story about not understanding a difficult to deal with card you’ve been dealt, then realizing, with a little help, that you had to go through that tough time to come out of it with “gravel in your gut”.

In many ways, finishing 2024 with the same record as 2023 should make the Pirates realize that this thing isn’t set up to just keep naturally progressing, but they are already at a point where a whole lot of what was already here better have learned from the beat down they got last year.

When we get into the offseason, and start hearing their message to fans as we enter 2025, and Pirates Fest, one thing I want to see change is going to be super apparent quickly. I want to hear players and team execs talk about improving and I want to hear it with the perspective that they wanted the same thing from many of the same players last year.

I want to hear how that experience will change their approach. I want to hear that the coach has learned when to be quicker on the trigger. I want to hear a lesson they’ve learned from their failed collective hitting approach.

I need to hear guys less giddy to be here, and more ready for business. I’m ready to stop hearing how exciting what’s coming is, and start hearing how exciting what’s here will be.

Of course they’re going to have to show us on the field, but on the way there, let’s make sure we all know what is going to change the outcome. If you don’t have a good answer, you didn’t do enough, plain and simple.

3. One Piece at a Time

Hilarious song really. It’s about working at a car factory, knowing you can’t afford to buy the product you’re building, so you decide to steal it one piece at a time so you can build one for yourself by the time you retire.

The song is great, but it also makes me think of how the Pirates have built this team and the task feels just as long and difficult to pull off as the premise of the song itself.

It started with the very few pieces they kept, Bryan Reynolds, Ke’Bryan Hayes, and Mitch Keller. They added David Bednar, you can count Oneil Cruz however you like. Eventually Paul Skenes, Jared Jones, Nick Gonzales, and more.

It’s hard to pull this off, for many of the same reasons Johnny’s plan wouldn’t work. Sometimes the game changes the vision of what works and if you’ve built slowly and surely like this, there’s a good chance you started with a different vision than the one you have now. In other words, they change the design, and you never get all the parts together for one model.

That’s a big reason why this offseason seems so much bigger, because while they’ll add more kids into the mix and go get some help, the very first pieces the Pirates decided to keep are now in some cases entering their 5th or 6th year of losing, and that isn’t good for anyone’s head space.

It’s not that say Reynolds is a guy who is going to look in the mirror this offseason and decide he’s a loser, it’s more to say when you start deciding who your footholds are going to be, you don’t just get to step on them every year without reaching new heights. Eventually they want to know why you didn’t just buy a step stool if that’s as high as you’re going to reach.

Fans hate being double talked to, but players don’t just feel it, they see it and experience it. Of all the places this management team will face pressure from in 2025, those players who have been here, and in some cases been part of the problem must step up and loudly decide enough is enough.

4. Ring of Fire

For me free agency is a ring of fire. You think you’re going to just dip in and get what you need and jump back to business, but once you jump in, you struggle to ever see the outside again.

There are some players I’d like the Pirates to check in on or even straight up go after, but not as many as you’d think for a team that again finished under .500.

I think they could sign 3-4 relievers pretty easily. I can get almost 15 deep on my list of players that could improve the Pirates group here.

But that’s not how it looks everywhere else.

First base is just not all that good. Christian Waker is 34 years old, and received a qualifying offer, which means if you sign him, you lose a draft pick. Not a disqualifier, just an obstacle and observation. Pete Alonso is 30, also has a QA and will undoubtedly be looking at a long term deal or a big money AAV with options.

Carlos Santana is 39 and while he claims to want to play another 4-5 years, he’s going to hit the wall sooner than later. Is this a one year solution?

Paul Goldschmidt is 37, and I bet he could still get a multi year deal somewhere. Beyond these names, I’m sorry, there isn’t a 1B option I think is a sure fire upgrade.

Short Stop you ask? Well, go get Willy Adames or Ha-Seong Kim who probably won’t start until like June or July and even then, you have to hope his shoulder allows him to play there. Beyond that, you’re signing a backup, even on this team.

Outfield, Tyler O’Neill had a great season, and at 30 years old, he’ll have more than a few suitors ignore his injury history and take a swing. Jurickson Profar finally had things snap into place for him, but he’s 32, and he’ll want to profit on more than his potential for once in his career.

Then you get to Michael Conforto, Alex Verdugo, Max Kepler, and Randal Grichuk types, who could all help, but none of them are superstar middle of the order types.

I really think more so than being cheap, this team needs to look a lot harder at trades than free agency.

I keep looking and trying to be creative with free agency, I just don’t see as much immediate help as I think would impact the record here, so I’ll likely spend more energy on trades, and my hope is the team does too.

Again, I’m not saying there is nothing there, I’m just saying I’m not in love with what is outside of the reliever market. I think there is some real value in the starting pitching market too for what it’s worth, I just question they need to go that route.

5. I Walk the Line

There’s something that almost nobody covering the Pirates is going to say out loud right now, and well, I’m gonna. This team will be better next year, even if they stubbornly decide to not add from outside in any major way.

Don’t get me wrong, I won’t be predicting a playoff run if they do next to nothing, but I also don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that they just stay stuck in the mud.

I see a starting rotation that should start in a stronger position than I’ve seen here before. I see a bullpen full of talent that failed in unison last year. That makes them a unit you can’t just return and hope with, but it doesn’t make them all guys we should cast aside like they won’t contribute.

I see Oneil Cruz ready to break out, Bryan Reynolds continuing to be steady, Nick Gonzales figuring out how to be an MLB player, a deep pool of catching talent, multiple options to play around the diamond, some vets, some kids.

An outfield that is largely green and untested, but talented.

Yeah, coaching. Yeah, performances that weren’t great in 2024. Yeah, guys who don’t have the ceiling we hoped. But there is a lot of room for improvement too, and I’m positive we’ll see some.

I want them to add, I think they will, but maybe I don’t feel quite as bad as some for the simple fact I believe they’re a couple good additions from accomplishing something. I prefer this to wishing they could get 2 or 3 big name players for a shot.

Bottom line, I don’t think they’re as far away as the environment surrounding them wants to sell, and I believe it’ll be apparent by mid season, most of their improvement will have indeed come from inside.