5-26-25 – By Gary Morgan – @garymo2007 on X
The Pirates just played a couple good series against division foes who find themselves in much the same situation, struggling more than they thought they would for one reason or another. The Bucs proved last week that this division is close, at least as it comes to head to head.
I’ll say this. Watching what this team looked like in these two series, that was a lot more entertaining than how the season started. It doesn’t make it go away or not matter somehow, but it does at least say when healthy, it’s probably better than they played the majority of this season.
Lets Go!
1. Oneil Cruz is Butterflying Before Our Very Eyes
I hear declarations all the time. And I mean from my side of things, the pundit, the podcaster, writer, fake journo, side. Final decisions of who stinks and who doesn’t thrown so quickly at subject after subject, player after player, coach after coach, and as soon as it happens, you just know most of them aren’t going to just change their mind and come off their brilliant initial decision they put out there already.
It’s rare to hear it done. I mean you’ll get a “let’s laugh at my bad take” thing here and there, but let’s say you decided Oneil Cruz is a selfish and stupid person with a penchant for laziness on top of it. and you made it your primary attack on all the bad you were seeing early on with the Pirates.
That’ll rarely be acknowledged.
The good things he does will get talked about, and eventually you’ll forget for the most part just how many terrible things were said.
I’ve really liked watching the evolution of Oneil Cruz, and specifically this year but we’ll think all the way back to last because that’s really where it started.
Recovering from his season ending injury it took Cruz time to find his stride at the plate, and struggling to field the only position he’s truly played as a professional, while managing the pain of breaking up all that scar tissue.
2024, Oneil Cruz was not 100% himself, in almost any way imaginable. Still, he learned, and he changed, but it took so long into the season that many felt he simply wouldn’t ever reach his ceiling.
Just didn’t pay enough attention, ya know?
This year, Cruz has been the only bat going for almost the entire season, and is currently on a roll that really starts your mind racing about what could be for this exciting young player.
11 homeruns already, 18 stolen bases, quickly adapting to centerfield despite still making some mistakes, he’s the straw that stirs the drink here, and every bit as important to anything this team is trying to do as Paul Skenes.
He’s also a much more pressing extension this team should actively be trying to achieve. Unfortunately, they happen to have a lame duck GM who probably doesn’t have the sway or latitude to try to approach it.
2. Call Up Scenarios
Different strokes for different folks as the great Muhammad Ali once said describing his varied fighting styles.
Well, when prospects get called up to the Majors is just as varied. Today, let’s talk a bit about some of them, and you feel free to apply them to whomever you want, like Liover Peguero, Malcom Nunez, Nick Yorke, Bubba Chandler, whoever at all.
Ready but Blocked – This is a prospect who has just about done everything they can in AAA, but defensively they’re hard to use unless the perfect injury situation pops up or the player blocking them could potentially use taking a seat or being pushed by a youngster. Now, if this is a top prospect, a number one pick, well, good chance someone is moving positions, either him or the player blocking him, but that can be a work in progress. Could have to make a deal and just trust the rookie too at some point. This one is frowned upon if the team is supposedly trying to compete, cause it’s risky. It’s why it’s hard for teams like the Yankees to onboard The Martian or Volpe, or the Dodgers with Lux. They just don’t have time or patience to deal with what it takes to make it work. Evan as they remember the successes like Jeter or Smith. Still, it’s a dance.
Should be Ready, but Sputtering – If you were a 3rd or 4th round pick or later, forget it. You’re Matt Gorski until such a time as you show up in a big way or the team is so desperate for help due to injury that their hand is forced. And even then, let’s be real, you’re probably already doing as much as you can, but you didn’t arrive when you were supposed to, and sometimes that makes a team go out and get someone to help at the big league level, and some teams actually sign those guys to more than one year, I know, crazy right?
There are times where this works out just fine, for both the player and the team, it takes them a bit longer, the team gives them a bit longer, win win. Sometimes though, it’s just never that simple, the fit just never works, the timing is always off for whatever reason, and for some reason a waiver claim reliever is always a more important spot on the 40-man.
Super 2! – Everyone’s favorite. First off, it’s not all that big of a deal. Just a lame excuse. Squeezing every last drop of juice from a lemon instead of cutting an extra one open. The financial gain is minimal, the timing is always suspicious, and here’s the thing, the timing is also suspiciously close to the 2 solid months in the minors most teams like to see. Perfect camouflage for subterfuge right? Listen, this was exploited to hell and back for years and years, and MLB tried to fix it with new incentives for calling up players earlier, but what’s really happened is, MLB execs have largely learned that some guys are ready faster, and it’s ok to strike while the iron is hot. Super 2 is a thing, it’s just not nearly the thing it used to be, and as you’re reading, there are other reasons for it. The other side of this, very few players are really in this conversation. Bubba Chandler is, Top prospect, seemingly ready, but good luck proving it’s not about the walks, or pitch counts to get through 5 innings. But, you don’t hear it about say, Braxton Ashcraft. I love reminding people, Jacob Stallings was Super 2. LOL
As Ready As They’ll be, but… – This is a hard one to swallow. The traditional guy who can’t possibly be worse than the worst player on your team. This one always comes down to things like, wanting to get the guy regular at bats, even as you watch guys who stink get way too many at bats for your favorite team. And it is usually a guy who hasn’t had a chance yet or got a brief chance and looked pretty good, or at least had one memorable hit. Perfect example, Matt Gorski and Tommy Pham and for what it’s worth, this is one that almost all teams mess up with regularity. Or, maybe more accurately, they don’t bother to try in the first place. You can’t block a punch with a piece of paper, and you shouldn’t block even a prospect like this with a corpse with a resume.
That’s enough for today, but you know, there are plenty more.
3. Can This Coaching Staff Survive a GM Shakeup?
I typically think no, but this one kind of feels different. This one seems to first off be doing a pretty good job of at the very least taking most of the same pieces and getting better results than his predecessor.
I don’t get the impression this whole thing was exactly Cherington’s idea and I’m almost damn sure it wasn’t his choice to get Gene Lamont back here to act as Don’s bench coach either. Does that feel like it could possibly fit in the analytics to coach structure they’d built?
Is the team playing or making decisions that make you feel like Chat GPT was making the calls? It feels more driven by feel, at least informed feel and that’s not a bad thing.
They’ve imported the manager from AAA to help translate the message for prospects as they transition as well as help clean up the fielding issues that had become rampant.
They already look more crisp and prepared.
I’m not sure if Ben Cherington can do anything to save his job at this point, but I’m at least a little swayed that this coaching staff could potentially outlast him. Long season left of course, and there’s a really good chance this team starts stripping this version of the team down for parts, Bednar, Ferguson, Borucki, IKF, Heaney, Frazier, and Pham, those types, well, I’m saying his job isn’t necessarily going to get easier.
Sure, Bubba, Harrington, Ashcraft, Burrows, Gonzales, Yorke, Cooke, and your other favorites like Endy, Jack and Bae could all have to step in and they could be better but let’s be real, if the playoffs aren’t in sight, it would be lunacy to not deal what you can deal, and they won’t be. This team could be playing better for a while, but I still think the job could get harder before it gets easier, with or without Cherington.
4. What to do with Endy
Endy Rodriguez has been on his rehab assignment, and soon the word will come that he’s being transferred off the IL, but where will he land, what will they do with him, and what should we expect?
Well, shit guys, I don’t know. I don’t know if anyone does.
He isn’t just going to come back up here to backup 1st base, I mean Spencer Horwitz is the starter, and even if he platoons, that’s not normally enough at bats for a kid. He could replace Henry as the backup, but man, Henry has really become a story defensively and at some point, you have to keep that skill set in the league, think of how much priority this team places on defensive catching. This is a team that has signed Roberto Perez, Austin Hedges, and as starters. I just don’t see Henry going anywhere, if anything I see him playing more and more.
Endy has played second base, but not recently, and he’s played some outfield but only a little and not really since Greensboro.
So I don’t know. I’m not sure even where I’d play him in AAA to give him a direct path. If there’s an injury to first base or catcher, he’s the first call. If you start pissing with him and try getting him ready for the OF, well, do you hurt his ability to step in at the other spots? Does the bat end up trumping everything and you just have to find a spot?
This one is going to have to play out, I have no clue or indication how it will but I’m fascinated.
5. Captain America is Over it
Paul Skenes is a winner, and he has chosen to play for winners when given the choice. First, he chose the Air Force, and then he chose LSU. But as in most North American Sports leagues, he was not given a choice as to where his first MLB home might be.
That said, the assumption that he’s immediately looking to jump ship, I think they’ve dismissed the fighter in him. The guy who knows if he can do it here it’ll mean a lot more than if he does it where it’s expected.
The guy who knows he just signed up for a fight but thinks he has a lot of what it’ll take to win against the odds.
Don’t get me wrong, I know the PR game, and I’m intentionally not using his quotes recently to prove my point, I’m simply saying, this player, he knows how hard it’ll be here, and he knows it’s in part because they could never afford someone like him on the open market.
I think early on, it’s easy for kids like him to believe they can make it different, bend things to their will, make change possible by their mere existence. At some point, they either grow frustrated that it’s gone the way it has or it becomes clear all the promise of things to come never came, but at this stage, it’s fair and safe to believe the kid when he tells you he wants to win and do it right here.
That doesn’t mean a whole lot honestly. It doesn’t change where the team is or how much they have to do to be ready to support such an idea, but it does mean, at least for now, let’s stop paying attention to all the BS trade stuff for Skenes.
The team said no. The player said no. And honestly, they’d be fools to say or do anything different.
Happy Memorial Day!
Steel City Pirates 