1-27-25 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X
Welcome to another all new Five Pirates Thoughts here at Steel City Pirates. The offseason is coming to a close and Spring Training is on the horizon. Ready or not Ben, here it comes.
It’s been a contentious offseason between fans and the team. Even as we celebrated the Rookie of the Year and undeniable phenom Paul Skenes, fans have seen it more as a reason the team should act differently, they clearly see it as more of a result of doing what they’ve done that he’s here at all.
No matter what we or they think, the fact is the time for the rubber to hit the road is nearly upon us.
Lets Go…
1. Just Be Brutally Honest
I’m a big believer in telling the truth, even when it’s hard, even when it’s unpopular.
I’m starting to wonder if the Pirates would do better with fans if they just stopped trying to pretend they were anything they aren’t.
Imagine for a minute, I’m Ben Cherington……
OK, I just cleaned a bunch of egg off my screen, can we move on?
I mean, the truth is, people are just going to be mad until or if they win, but a decent percentage of you like to tell me that if they just told the truth, you could accept it. Let me show you what I mean.
Ben, why haven’t the Pirates signed any multi-year free agents? Simple, Jim Bob, We don’t want locked into anyone if we can avoid it, and for the most part, we can always avoid it. I’d rather get 2 WAR total from 3 guys who cost me 750K each than 2 WAR from a guy I paid 15 million over 2 years. If I’m doing multi-year deals, it’s almost always going to be an extension, they’re cheaper and we REALLY know these guys far better than any free agent.
Why don’t the Pirates have urgency to add to a roster with Paul Skenes on it? First, I did add to the roster, you just don’t think it’s enough. I have a 100 Million dollar budget, bottom line, that’s one more bigger named free agent, maybe, or room to add at the deadline, maybe. I’d also add, we never make major long reaching roster decisions based on one player.
See where I’m going? These statements are blunt and very likely the truth of the situation. They don’t fill you with hope, they instead essentially tell you to stop dreaming.
I could do this all day. Because really, we all know the truth, we just get tired of the sanitized, flowery and serpentine groups of gobbledygook we get. I mean, would you rather be flatly told it’s a stretch to think they’ll resign Paul Skenes or told that somehow winning more will have him tripping over his tongue trying to find a way to sign for half his market value some day?
2. Spencer for Hire
Spencer Horwitz has done one thing wrong, he was acquired by a team who’s fans don’t trust the front office to do a damn thing right.
Other than that, he’s a very promising player.
I mean, I kid, but only a little.
The Pirates back in 1998 traded Ricardo Rincon to Cleveland for a young power hitter named Brian Giles. He had some proven MLB power, too many strikeouts, walked a good bit but more than anything, just wasn’t getting the opportunity with the Indians. So the Pirates took the 29 year old late bloomer off their hands and turned him into one of the more productive players the Pirates have had this century.
I’m not here to tell you Spencer Horwitz is going to turn into Brian Giles, I’m here to tell you he has a lot of the same things in his profile.
27 years old, largely blocked, some proven MLB pop.
Personally, I didn’t know who Giles was. I didn’t even remember who they traded for him until I looked it up writing this piece. You can fish in ponds like this, and every once in a while, you get to be the one who catches the Musky someone stocked it with.
The Pirates acquired Giles with every intension of being the team that did give him a chance to play every day, and while it’s not the first baseman many of you wanted, or identified, Spencer sure could be the right guy too.
This is the type of acquisition I’d have preferred to see them make in say 2021 or 2022, when they had time to explore and experiment, but to act like this is a terrible acquisition even as we sit in 2025 is to ignore an awful lot about Horwitz.
The scariest thing about this deal is the lack of a safety net at first base if he doesn’t perform.
I know, I know, you hope you’re wrong…. Look, that’s ok, but in the process, you’re railing on the guy like they’ve left first base for dead. They don’t feel they have.
I’m not sold on the guy, but there is enough evidence there to safely assume league average as a floor. For a guy with 425 total MLB at bats, solid chance that’s not where he’ll stay. Worthy shot here at a player if you ask me, but nobody should be sure what he is in any conceivable direction.
As plainly as I can put it, if you were truly ok with entering 2025 with Endy Rodriguez as the presumptive starting first baseman and have an issue with Horwitz being added, you need to get your head out of your can.
3. New Year, New David Bednar?
Man, if you ran into David at Pirates Fest, you saw right away, this is a guy who took the offseason to button himself up. He looks trim, he looks determined and he’s saying all the right things.
“I’ve never been more ready to go, dialed in and hungry to get back to who I know I am,” – David Bednar
What happens on the field is what matters, but I’m confident you won’t feel the too many IC Lights joke will play this Spring. He’s ready.
That doesn’t mean the rest of the bullpen is of course, but the Pirates lost a lot of games on blown saves last year, 7 just from David. That’s both uncharacteristic and unsustainable for a team that is going to have to scratch and claw for every win.
Colin Holderman had 5 blown saves. Aroldis Chapman added 5 more.
Look, that’s 17 blown saves from your top 3 closer options, 2 of which are returning for 2025.
Close out 10 more of those games and the Pirates finish with 86 wins.
It’s that important.
It’s also why, while completely understanding the thought that David will rebound, the Pirates would do well to add another back end experienced guy. There aren’t many left, but as bad as the offense was last year, this issue is fixable, or at least you can make it a hell of a lot better which in turn would make the team a hell of a lot better.
All that said, and circling back to David himself, this is a very proud Pittsburgh native. He and his pride took a hit last year and I get the impression he’s doing everything he can this offseason to make sure 2025 isn’t a repeat. Want to alone won’t get this done, of course, but this also isn’t a guy who’s failed 3 of the last 4 seasons.
Better, might be enough. Back to All Star caliber, well that might be more than enough.
4. Dismiss Nick Yorke? Not I
Nick Yorke is still considered a prospect, in fact, according to Keith Law at the Athletic, he’s the 50th best prospect in baseball this year.
Cherington has gotten a lot of flack for his deadline deals last year, none more so than Bryan De La Cruz, but he also brought in Isiah Kiner-Falefa who regardless of where he is best used allowed Oneil Cruz to move to CF, Billy Cook who has some of his own national praise points and Nick Yorke who gives the Pirates arguably their best bet at a bat before Termarr shows up.
Our guy Michael wrote up a nice piece about Nick himself earlier last week.
Very worth your attention if you haven’t already read it.
Some will see this as trying to make it ok that Ben hasn’t added anything huge this offseason, but I look at it more as being happy there are options like this close to the league. A win on a guy like this would really help sew up some holes.
5. Jared Jones Might Look Different…
I’m told that Jared Jones is working on adding his own version of “the Splinker” made famous by his fellow second year player and room mate Paul Skenes. He’s also working on his command of his fastball, something that he hopes will make his 4 seam as effective at 97 as it is when he hits 101.
What Jared did in 2024 was remarkable, and he’s planning to take arguably the same size jump in this offseason. That’s a lot to ask, but Jared’s season started with a rookie of the year pace and finished with an emptying of the tank performance that quite simply hadn’t been there since sometime in June.
Yeah, he had the LAT injury, but what really happened was as he stretched out he lost velocity. When he lost velocity, he became easier to hit. Not easy to hit, but specifically easier. That’s why he desperately needs another pitch. It doesn’t have to be the splinker, hell it doesn’t even have to be just one.
He needs something to keep hitters off his heater and the Sweeper isn’t enough. He doesn’t suffer from Kyle Crick like command but he can’t paint corners all day with his slider either, so he needs it to get back to being a split decision, by keeping the velocity up, or he needs to add in another pitch that disrupts timing.
He’ll be counted on this year, but it doesn’t take long to look around the league and find guys who had a promising rookie year only to never recapture it.
What sets Jared apart is the way he works in the offseason, and unlike last year, this time he has a full season of seeing what gets guys out before he gets back to work on what that arsenal might look like.
I have full confidence he’ll be in the rotation again, but look at what’s coming and coming back, nobody has room to slip, including Jared.
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