11-24-24 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on Twitter
There is a definitive aura in the fan base right now, and it’s best boiled down to, enough is enough. Fans want a winner, and there isn’t much desire to hear about plans, or improvement or growth, development, whatever you can think of that doesn’t have impact like tomorrow, next to nobody wants to talk about it.
That’s fine for fans, they can do whatever they like and believe they know better, that’s their job. A team executive though, well, he better make sure he looks at the landscape of his team and properly evaluates the difference between hoping a guy improves and real tangible signs that a guy is actively improving.
This team has a ton of this all around the diamond, truly. Even performers who lean a bit toward the proven side have a trend, or things they struggle with, or position uncertainty, it’s all over the place.
I mean, think about this, the Pirates All Star, extended, proven and consistent starting left fielder, quite literally might be moving to first base. If he is, the team is going to be placing a bet that he can do it well enough that defense over there isn’t an issue. They’ve already cut one of the safety net players over there in Connor Joe. That means as we sit here, first base is Endy Rodriguez, who’s played there a bit, but has not played in MLB in over a year due to injury. He’s also a talented catcher and not to add to the murky depths here, but the “starting” catcher Joey Bart, well, he’s only really had 1 solid season in MLB, and it was last year after the Pirates acquired him. Health has been a big issue for Joey and let’s be real, he did next to nothing to control the running game along with his pitchers.
I can do this all night.
If you pressed me to do it and made up a 26-man out of the existing 40-man members, I promise you, I could absolutely talk about every single player on the team, bring up their question marks, talk about how they effect two or three other players and cast doubt on the entire team.
This is not uncommon on a young baseball team and yes, the Pirates are that, a very young baseball team.
Like, let’s circle back to Reynolds moving or not. If he moves, ok, in theory it fills a big hole, and for years to come at first base. A problem this team has had for, well, most of my life. So, I can get behind this move, plus, while I don’t feel Bryan is a poor fielder, I can’t avoid that defensive metrics certainly do. I say this while acknowledging I’m not a fan of these metrics, I think they leave a lot to be desired as it comes to accuracy, but I also can’t pretend that the baseball world feels the same.
So he’s at first. He’s going to play just about every day. They’ll rest him and have him DH here and there, but this is a player who plays north of 155 games every single year.
That takes first base away from some of the things you could potentially do to get Endy Rodriguez or Henry Davis, or even potentially Joey Bart opportunities over there. Look, of those 3, only Endy is a ready made option over there, but you have to think they’d at least consider seeing what the other two look like over there.
Even if it’s not Reynolds there, say they sign a free agent, the position is filled, and now 2 outfield spots are too, because Reynolds would be back in the outfield.
I bother talking about all that primarily because, I don’t really love any of the free agent first basemen out there and it’s super hard to plan on a trade. You can pursue one, you can fancy one, even target one, but it’s super hard to leave something virtually empty while you try for a move that could take into Spring Training to complete.
My biggest fear when I look at this roster is the lack of safety net at the positions of need. Moving Reynolds weakens the outfield, but potentially sews up first base. Move Reynolds you probably need 2 outfielders. Don’t move Reynolds you need a much more elusive target. Unless you want to trust an untested rookie, or I guess you think Jared Triolo should get another crack at holding down a starting spot somewhere.
Short stop is a position fans seem to have just accepted will be Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and hey, I get why, they’ve made it seem like that’s their preference too, but man, I don’t really feel settled in the entire infield.
They have Ke’Bryan Hayes, we all know the issues there, IKF, Nick Gonzales, Liover Peguero, Jared Triolo, they kept Ji-Hwan Bae and Alika Williams for the time being so you have to count them, and if you really want to dig deep, they have Termarr Johnson having a very busy Winter playing baseball for the AFL and Team USA.
That’s some pieces. Some pieces I kinda like too, but you can’t lock in those positions and feel super good can you? Now, they can upgrade, either via trade or free agency, but I’d imagine they want to give Hayes every chance to at the very least make himself valuable again. they are paying IKF more than Hayes, so let’s not pretend he’s just going to sit. Nick Gonzales had an ok rookie season, but he has some things to prove yet, including is the power going to come?
You can replace him of course, but man, now you’re asking him to keep getting better, on the bench. You probably have to look to move Peguero, the others are largely fodder anyway right? Termarr isn’t going to happen before mid to late season if at all.
I can’t tell you this team should enter 2025 without upgrading 2B or SS. I won’t say both, because I don’t think they need both, but one sure fire player at either spot would deepen this lineup. I do think though after looking at this, we should expect them to do just that. It just feels to me like it almost has to be that way.
Oh yeah, I guess I should have mentioned Trey Cabbage in the first base mix, but bluntly, I don’t want to go there, I want to believe that’s simply a clone of Jake Lamb last year.
This team needs to fill spots all over the diamond because no matter how you slice it, they have holds. They also have some flexibility on where those holes will be the biggest.
I’ll be real with you, more than any other metric, the fact that I can’t go around the diamond and tell you 5 or 6 spots with locks to start is a problem. Good players get locked in quick, and we simply aren’t at a place with this roster, yet, where you can do such an exercise.
It’s a lot to trust a GM with, and I mean that even if you trust the GM. It’s impractical to go around replacing every maybe when you’re supposedly trying to build 90% of your team internally, at some point you have to trust your development, the thing is, you really want to see things like this in like year 3, not 5 or 6. I’m not going to rehash how we got here, but I am going to say it all comes to a head this year.
Predictions are just about out for me. There are far too many variables, and as I touched on earlier, that’s the very last thing I wanted to see at this stage. All along this journey what have I constantly pointed to at the beginning and end of every season? Right… the questions.
The questions they needed to be answering while we were wasting time with Josh Van Meter. The things we needed to see while we had no chance of winning and no solid shortstop and Liover Peguero played in AAA.
It’s make or break this year, and folks, it was going to be whether we were pissed off or not. We’re to the point of the game where all the Monopoly properties have been purchased, everyone has hotels on everything they can put them on.
This offseason we roll the dice and see what happens.
They’ll sign guys. They’ll make moves. But they’ll very much so enter this season with some hopes and wishes too. I just don’t see any way around it.
Steel City Pirates 