International Intrigue for the Pittsburgh Pirates

If it feels like every season the league is captivated by another young International signing, it’s probably because it’s true. Ronald Acuna, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., Eloy Jimenez, the league is filled with talent from outside our borders and those that play the game the right way can accelerate team building in huge leaps rather than the baby steps of yesteryear.

I’ve spent the majority of my professional life in marketing and one of our favorite sayings is that the marketing department is the most important and least recognized facet of most corporations. It’s the first thing to get cut in budget tightening exercises and the first to take blame when things don’t go well.

The international signing period each year is much the same. We notice the big hits, but when you’re signing 16-year-olds it can be hard to keep track of them as they work their way through a system, if they ever do.

Today, I’d like to dig into the International Signing Process a bit and talk about the Pirates past and future in this crucial area of talent acquisition.

The Lists

First of all, the lists are very flexible. You see them published every season and while the top 20-30 are a pretty safe bet to produce a decent player, they also fail often to account for the 5′ 11″, 16 year old pitcher who will fill out. That’s not to say these lists aren’t useful, but instead to point out, trusting the scouts on the ground is far more important than buying into the lists as undeniable truth.

For instance, on Day 1 of the period, then GM Neal Huntington pulled the trigger on 21 signings. The marquee name was probably Christopher Cruz, a 6′ 2″ Right-handed pitcher who right now has a fastball in the upper 80’s but has touched 92-94 in game action. He was 16 years old so he has room to grow and they project him to be able to get his fastball up into the upper 90’s. Sounds awesome right? Well sure, but someone like this doesn’t come cheap. The Pirates signed the young Dominican for $850,000 and that’s just about right for the number 20 guy in MLB Pipeline’s top 30 list.

Just last week, Cherington closed the deal on Po-Yu Chen out of Taiwan for $1.5 Million dollars. Fangraphs has him listed as the 22nd best international prospect available in the 2019-20 signing period. The 19-year old hurler will jump right in to development unlike Cruz who will still have to wait, but this is the culmination of 3 years of scouting and over 25 filed reports from the Pirates scout Fu Chun Chiang who really got close to Po-Yu and his family. In order to procure the slot money to get this deal done you have to look all the way back to the Jarrod Dyson deal with the White Sox and two under the radar deals with the Cardinals and Orioles that gave Ben the room to get this done.

There is a ton of maneuvering that has to take place to secure talent like this and you can’t just jump in the day before and win on these things.

The Rules

In a typical year, the signing period starts in early July and goes through mid-June the following year. In order to sign a player must be 16 and turning 17 before September 1st of the following year.

In order to be eligible, a player must be registered with MLB in advance. In other words you can’t just find someone on June 13 and sign them before they’ve become detected.

In 2016 the Atlanta Braves blew past their international pool monies by over 11-Million dollars causing them to be harshly penalized. Losing all of their pool money for the 2019-20 signing period and the forfeiture of 7 of the signees they had inked. They also lost their 3rd round pick last season and several executives stepped down. When it comes to the rules in this market, don’t mess with them.

The Pool Money

This can be confusing to say the least. First of all, teams don’t always report all their signing amounts and players that sign for under $10,000 don’t count against the pool. That’s not to say they are failing to comply with MLB rules, but the amounts don’t always leak to reporters.

That said, let’s try to make this as understandable as possible.

The baseline figure this period was $5,398,300 but if your club received a competitive balance pick in Round B the figure last year started here $6,481,200, Round A and the figure looked like this $5,939,800. Clear as mud huh? Well it gets better.

For instance, in the last period the Dodgers and Phillies each lost $500,000 for signing high priced free agents and the Nationals even more for signing a free agent and exceeding the Luxury tax figure.

On top of the starting point teams can trade pool money. Now this isn’t actual cash transferred from team to team, instead it is room to spend. So when the Pirates traded Starling Marte to the Arizona Danger Noodles for Brennan Malone and Peguero they also received international pool money that gave the Pirates room to sign Solomon Maguire the Australian phenom outfielder. It’s part of the deal but make no mistake, Arizona didn’t help the Pirates pay for Maguire, instead they gave them the ability to do so.

This is one of those nitpicky points that drive some of us who cover MLB insane. Many people see the trades for international pool money and immediately propose that Bob Nutting is lining his pockets, in reality the club is actually trading for the right to spend more money. It doesn’t excuse the areas he doesn’t spend but this at the very least is a take I’d love to see go away permanently.

Teams can trade as much of their pool as they’d like but no team can acquire more than 60% of another club’s initial pool.

The final wrinkle I’ll touch on is fairly simple, an international player who is 25 or has played 6 years in a foreign professional league doesn’t count against the pool.

Whew, right?

Who Did the Pirates Get in 2019-20

The Pirates signed 49 players in this period and we’ve already discussed 3 of the highlights. That’s not to say the other 46 won’t matter but you’d be foolish to think even a third of this list will ever grace the turf at PNC Park.

The group includes 23 right-handed pitchers, 7 left-handed pitchers, 17 position players and two catchers. Dominated by the Dominican as is typical for Pittsburgh but reach into Australia and Taiwan is on the rise.

For a great list that’s easy to digest check this out. They don’t have the very last signing in there yet but, it’s pretty comprehensive.

Out of the signings 4 are commonly accepted as top 25 talents. For some perspective, Ben Cherington compared the signing of Chen as equivalent to a 2nd round pick in the traditional amateur draft.

If you take nothing else from this piece, that’s probably the best way to look at it. The Pirates potentially picked up 4 or 5 top of the draft type talents in this signing period and that should itself tell you how important these can be for rebuilding a system.

Remodeling The Infrastructure

This restructuring started well before Ben Cherington was even a twinkle in Bob Nutting’s eye. However, he would be the one to put on the finishing touches.

Back in December of 2017 the Pirates made a necessary move in replacing then longtime Director of Latin American Scouting Rene Gayo due to him being cited for rules violations by Major League Baseball for accepting an improper payment. In stepped, Junior Vizcaino, who was given a new title as the Director of International Scouting.

Then in February of 2019 Pittsburgh Pirates’ owner and chairman, Bob Nutting, spoke of his plans to expand the team’s already existing Baseball Academy in the Dominican Republic; doubling the facilities that were present at that time. The original project had cost the Pirates approximately $5 million dollars and to date had only produced a few Dominican-born prospects. In order to be a player in the competitive international market, these upgrades were obviously necessary.

Finally Cherington came in to complete the project with the hiring of Oz Ocampo as a Special Assistant to the GM. Ocampo had cut his teeth in the Cardinals system by specializing in scouting, player development and international operations for over four years. He then moved on to the Houston Astros where he served as Director of International and Latin player development before being promoted to special assistant to the GM in 2017; spending over 7 years total with the franchise. During his time in Houston he was credited with the development of several players, including Yuli Gurriel and Yordan Alvarez.

Who Are the Bucs Targeting in 2021?

Scouts have this period as one of the deepest since Atlanta wreaked havoc in 2016 and the top target for the Pirates seems to be Shalin Polanco, an outfielder from the Dominican who industry experts have pegged at around $2.5 Million for a bonus, and no, he isn’t related to Gregory. He’s a skinny lefty who scouts believe will develop power because of his compact and loose swing. Most have him as the tenth best prospect available and he has been compared to some names I’ll not pile on the kid yet lest you start picturing him flipping bats at opposition dugouts.

Another player mentioned to be in sight is Ruben Vizcaya a young outfielder from Venezuela with raw power. His ranking is less agreed upon, but he’s as high as 10 and no lower than 25. Both of these guys seem very probable to sign with Pittsburgh and the Pirates in general seem to be hunting outfield talent.

Beyond that would be overt speculation on my part many have Darlin Diaz as the Pirates top pitching acquisition in this class. There seems to be more chance they miss on him though as the relationship is newer.

Past International Signings in the System to Keep an Eye On

Ji-Hwan Bae was signed in 2017 out of South Korea. He’s yet another name in the list of potential future middle infielders working their way through the system. A total burner and slick fielder too, Bae isn’t on everyone’s radar but probably should be.

A bulk of other notable signings were made prior to, as well after the leadership change that occurred in December of 2017, when Vizcaino took the reins, so some credit is still due to Gayo on the international front. Some of these players are starting to pop up on top prospect lists, across multiple sites; giving credence to a once diminished system. Often highlighted on many are Infielder Rodolfo Castro, Third Baseman Alexander Mojica, and Outfielder Rodolfo Nolasco. The ones that haven’t yet, still leave quite an impression collectively as the dominant DSL Pirates2 of 2019.

Special thanks to Craig Toth for lending his expertise to help make this piece all it could be.

Pirates Youth Movement: Top Prospects Highlight Instructional League Roster

It goes without saying that this spring and summer was full of disappointments for Pirates fans and those within the Pittsburgh organization; from the Front Office, all the way down to the most recently drafted and acquired players. Much of this goes beyond the 19-41 record, accumulating injuries and underwhelming individual performances on the big league level. For many the truncated Major League and cancelled Minor League Baseball Seasons led to time at home, absent of any formalized work or games. Some players and coaches were lucky enough to be chosen to participate in the Taxi Squad at the Alternate Site in Altoona. However, many others were left to their own devices, and of course fans were left with the void of not getting a glimpse at the next generation of hopefuls in a MiLB Ballpark near them.

This changed for a select group of young Pirates prospects as it was announced back in September that ball clubs could move forward with Instructional Leagues at their Spring Training facilities, which would include both workouts and games between teams.

When the Pirates announced the eligible players that would fill out this roster, a few familiar faces from the Taxi Squad could be seen; including #1 Prospect according to MLB Pipeline, Nick Gonzales. Also on the final list were, #4 ranked Pitcher Quinn Priester, #5 Short Stop Liover Pegeuro, #18 First Baseman Mason Martin, and #26 Second Baseman Rodolfo Castro. However, many would be participating in their first team led workouts since the shutdown and for some it would be their first ever in a Pirates uniform of any sort. At the top of the later group were the remaining five members of the Pirates 2020 draft class and two top international signees, all pitchers; #8 ranked Carmen Mlodzinski, #13 Pitcher Jared Jones, #17 Pitcher Nick Garcia, Jack Hartman, Logan Hoffman, Yojeiry Osoria and Christopher Cruz.

All in all there were 20 players from the MLB Pipeline Top 30 Prospects on the finalized roster, as well as at least 5 others ranked by either Fangraphs or Baseball America. This makes up almost half of the entire roster; which isn’t completely unusual. Some players eventually graduate due to MLB Service, while others lose their luster as they move through the system; ultimately being replaced by the new shiny or flashy player with higher ceiling capacity.

So, what does this tell me? Well, as far as the Pirates Farm System is concerned, the future is bright, extremely young and packed with potential talent. Unfortunately looking at this roster also points out, yet again, a glaring hole that exists within the organization; according to the experts that construct these lists. Not one of the seven catchers listed is seen as a top level talent within the system. However, for the most part, they have youth on their side as the majority are 22 years old or younger, with a couple of 19 year olds in the bunch. Simply put, they have time to develop and grow at the position.

As far as the guys left off the roster due to ineligibility, availability or even performance, I am hopeful for a more normal off-season filled with Winter Leagues and ultimately full Major and Minor League seasons as we look toward the future. There is also a little bit selfishness baked into this hope because, what I wouldn’t give to be scouting Pirates Prospects come spring.

Same Pirates Coaching, Largely Same Players, Why Are Some Expecting Different Results?

I mean, that’s at least a stylized definition of insanity, right? I should clarify, I’m someone expecting different results, so I can at least tell you why I think there is room to expect better. Keep in mind, I’m not talking a ton better, but improvement should be the goal and I think it’s attainable.

Couple things here, I like the starting pitching depth and if Jameson Taillon is 75% the pitcher he was he’s an improvement on over half the starters they trotted out there in 2020. The bullpen will minimally get Santana back and hopefully Burdi and a full season of Cederlind.

That’s just on the mound. That’s also not much to hang your hat on. Improvement doesn’t take too much though, when you lose 2/3 of your games its hard to get much worse. I’m looking for incremental improvement. Because that’s plausible, and because it’s a healthy expectation.

The work Cherington and crew have in front of them is daunting but we far too often see this process as something that just somehow comes together with no signs preceding it.

The White Sox for instance were just about at rock bottom back in 2018. Feels like 10 years ago doesn’t it? They won 62 games total that year, in 2019 the record improved to 72 games and while they still weren’t a winning club, you could see what they were building. The young pitching was there learning on the job or going to be there very soon. The young bats were special and patience with players like Tim Anderson started to look smart. Obviously I can’t just quote you a win total for 2020 and show progression but a .583 win percentage was good for a third place finish in their division. Over the course of a full campaign who knows if they would have kept that level of play going but I think it’s safe to say, another incremental improvement was on the way.

That’s really the goal. If the Pirates are just a failure from here until the day there is another playoff game in the North Shore in your eyes, that’s entirely your right. But for a guy like me who enjoys the ride just as much as the destination, the team building process is intriguing to me.

Don’t get me wrong, this season sucked. It’s part of the process for sure but I didn’t enjoy what happened on the field much of the season.

My wife and I love driving to Hilton Head. We both enjoy the drive down almost just as much as getting there. And I mean every step along the way, stopping at historical sites on the way through West Virginia if we go that route, or getting a giant coffee and sandwich at Sheetz in Breezewood (Pennsylvania’s gateway to vacation). All the sights and sounds along the way being part of that ultimate goal. If I look up and see signs for Toledo, you know a wrong turn, I think I might not be quite so happy with the trip.

The point is, you don’t have to sit back and enjoy every mistake made on the way there. Here’s the kicker, when you stop for gas off the turnpike and it’s a dollar more expensive than every other sign you’ve seen, you have to get it anyway if you want the trip to continue. The White Sox did just that with Grandall. And before this story is written, the Pirates will have to do it too.

I saw a cute piece written just the other day showing what each of the four final playoff teams could teach the Pirates. It was silly really, its safe to say every year whomever ends up in the final four have done a good job with all the categories covered. Development, Deals, Scouting, they all factor in. Maybe it’s been too long, but back in 2013 the national pundits raved about the Pirates system and talked about the lasting ability of the franchise that had been restored.

It was for a couple seasons, and could have probably gone another further, but we’re sitting right back at the bottom looking up. If Ben Cherington makes no moves this off season, this club will improve. Again, not enough, but improve. If he doesn’t want stuck with growing his team directly out of the ashes left by Huntington, he needs to finish the deconstruction project. The foundation might just go up faster than we think if he does this right.

Five Pirates Thoughts at Five 10/13/20

It’s been a while since I put one of these together but none of these add up to full columns so I wanted to put some thoughts out here and get some conversation going.

  1. The Pirates are taking Kumar Rocker! Right? Well, probably. I’m sure they’re leaning that way, but let’s take this out of baseball for a moment. If I need to build a deck next Summer, I might draw up some plans and might even go so far as to price out materials. Does that mean whomever has the best price in October is going to get my business in the Summer? What if they’re competitive and I have to consider other factors such as service, availability, maybe even quality? This is a big decision, it deserves the gravity of thought. Frankly, if they came out and said today who the plan was, I’d question that they’re doing due diligence. The pick get’s made next July, we don’t need to know yet, and they certainly don’t need to know right this second. The drop off from one to two is not grand canyon sized.
  2. If Ben Cherington doesn’t make trades of XX thru YY I’ll know he’s a puppet. What? Trades don’t happen because one side wants them to. We’ve discussed in this space the difficulties in finding a trade partner for a player like Josh Bell. Here’s the thing, you don’t have to say a player sucks to believe there might not be a market for the player. Before you arbitrarily deem this GM a failure or winner based on who he has or hasn’t traded, at least look around the league and ask yourself these questions. Do they have a need? Do they have a desirable return? Would they be willing to part with that return? Will both sides get something they desire? If you think you know who will trade for a player and haven’t or can’t answer these questions, chances are it’s because there are none.
  3. Whoever the Pirates draft either won’t sign or will get traded in 3 years. As you know, I understand the jaded nature at which much of the fan base looks at the Pirates. They’ve earned that scrutiny surely, but both of these takes are idiotic. The draft has changed over the years, slotting says this is how much you can pay this guy at this point in the draft. This isn’t the old days where the Pirates would select a ‘signable’ pick rather than the best available. Those days are over, and it doesn’t matter if you trust the Pirates or not. The only way that would happen in today’s climate would be the selection of an underclassmen in which you hadn’t pre-negotiated the bonus and contract. There isn’t a GM, interim GM, bench jockey or any other executive in MLB that would make a number one pick without that being done. If the player is in MLB within 3 years it is untypically fast. From that point you get (as it stands now) 6 or 7 years of team control from there. Forecasting doom is the national pastime for many “sports” talkers who have long since stopped paying actual attention to MLB, let alone the Pirates.
  4. The Pirates have decided to retain the entire coaching staff. I’m not shocked. Despite some very real questions that came up as this season played out, I didn’t expect 60 games to be enough to convince Cherington he was wrong in his choices. Maybe he isn’t, maybe Shelton learned something in those 60 games. I understand it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. That said, until they explain their thinking it’s hard for me to say more than look at the results. Those results however are also based on 60 games. Now if that’s not enough to make a judgement on Shelton, it’s hard to argue it’s enough for the hitting coach. We’ll have no way of knowing how married he is to his choices until he makes a change one day, but it’s very safe to say he didn’t feel 60 games was enough to uproot the apple cart.
  5. If the Pirates unexpectedly ‘arrive’ early, does the plan change? The funny thing is, this is exactly why you won’t hear many GM’s affirm a rebuild. Because if it happens early people know it wasn’t your plan that made it happen. For instance, the White Sox showed up a season early, everything they were doing was building to 2021 and things came together faster, now we already discussed what 60 games created, who knows what a full season would have brought their way, but suffice to say they weren’t targeting 2020. This shouldn’t be taken as a prediction but if the Bucs don’t move any starting pitchers, the rotation still has a great chance to be much better next season. If any of the hitters look like they can, things improve. Let’s say they find a way to .500 next year, does the plan change? Does Cherington continue to move players and stock the system or does he get antsy and try to build on it? He has stated he liked the opportunity here because he could build from the ground up. I’d like to think he’d stay the course, that would be best for the long run, but the urge to win could alter his path. Interesting to think about at least. What would you want him to do?

Postseason Sets Pirate Fan Eyes on What Might Have Been

We’ve all heard the names like Glasnow, Cole, Meadows, Morton, the bigger the playoff field the longer the list becomes. How good would those guys look in Pittsburgh right now? How bad was that trade? Nothing puts Pittsburgh fans into a tizzy more than seeing former hometown players become stars after leaving town.

It’s not always about stardom though, sometimes it’s a player like Sid Bream who left Pittsburgh to very little fan outrage only to land with the Atlanta Braves and eventually culminate in one slide that broke the hearts of an entire city. Sid was different, nobody spent much time talking about the tremendous talent the Pirates let go, for him it was more about seeing ghosts.

We watched Aramis Ramirez get moved for nothing that panned out. He certainly continued to put up solid numbers, not hall of fame numbers most likely, but solid. Rarely did we have to watch him do it on a playoff stage however. Kris Benson never achieved the greatness of his pedigree in fact his wife Anna probably achieved more notoriety once he went to New York appearing on the Howard Stern Show than Kris did on the mound.

Denny Neagle was traded for primarily Jason Schmidt and we didn’t watch him succeed in the playoffs until the 2000 World Series with the Yankees. Schmidt himself never tortured the Pirates the way today’s crop has.

Gerrit Cole wanted out of town, that’s not some revelation, we all know that. He wasn’t going to get the kind of money he was entitled to anywhere outside of New York or LA, yeah, the Pirates could fit his AAV on their roster and still have the lowest payroll in the league, but let’s not pretend that changes anything. We often forget these guys want to win too, not just get paid, and Cole has a much better chance of getting paid and surrounded with talent in NY or LA. He knew this, you knew this and most certainly his agent knew this.

Now, none of that means the Pirates had to execute a trade of Mr. Cole so early, especially didn’t need to try to get MLB ready talent in return. In other words, knowing they weren’t going to entertain or be entertained by Cole and his camp for extension, didn’t need to mean they had to make the trade they did. They could have used capital like that to help rebuild the system.

Charlie Morton was always talented, had scary stuff. Atlanta knew that too, but he struggled to trust his stuff and control it. He ran into injury trouble in Pittsburgh and when he was let go, outcry was minimal. Sure there were some of us who really wished the Pirates had found a way to keep the intriguing righty in town, but most felt it was best to just let him go. He had spent 7 seasons in Pittsburgh including playing his extension years with the Pirates but he rarely stayed healthy even when he did he showed flashes of brilliance, sprinkled with frustrating struggle.

When he signed with the Phillies the Pirates looked like they had pegged him right. Charlie fell to injury again and only threw 17 innings for Philadelphia. It wasn’t until he showed up in Houston that something clicked, and that continued right into his tenure with Tampa. It was with those two clubs that Pirates fans started to experience sour grapes on the Bucs losing Morton.

Revisionist history is of course every sports fan’s birthright. We remember things as cut and dried when nuance was very much involved. We claim we were mad from the first time the transaction news hit the wire even as we sat in the bar high fiving the move as it went down. A broad brush won’t do this subject justice, there very much so were folks who did see the talent coming back for Andrew McCutchen and probably were even vocal about it.

I’m not always right on these types of things, but I didn’t always write about them either. For instance, when the Chris Archer deal went down I liked it. I didn’t like losing Meadows, felt it was wholly appropriate to give up on Tyler Glasnow and most of the time the PTBNL is nobody I’ve ever heard of. Archer came with control and he was the most coveted starter on the trade block.

Now that I write, let’s just say I am a little more careful about my opinion. If that move happened today I’d at least toss in worry about who that PTBNL would be, but I still would have never assumed it would be the number one pick they just made. Meadows was a great prospect, I didn’t understand why the Pirates didn’t want to play him but it was the price of doing business.

It’s rare to make a trade for a veteran and see the ‘prospects’ you give up immediately jump in and look like your front office had no clue. That certainly happened here, and Neal paid for it, rightly so. There is much to blame Bob Nutting for through the years, but in this case, he and the team ate salary in exchange for three top prospects with almost full compliments of control for one pitcher. In other words, this ain’t on Bob.

The Pirates have paid for it ever since. Both on the field and in the hearts and minds of the fan base. Deservedly so, but we also shouldn’t pretend we saw a future champion when we watched Glasnow bounce fastballs 5 feet in front of the plate. We don’t need to act like we knew all along Tyler was going to figure it out. Young guys get better, but here was a guy who was handed a starting role more so because there was nothing more he could show in AAA. Even Tampa used him creatively by utilizing an opener when he pitched at the beginning.

Huge mistake. Huge understatement. Ultimately, a fire-able offense.

There will be more moves coming, and more players who end up performing like they never did in Pittsburgh. When and if the Pirates move on from Josh Bell, we needn’t even discuss the return, chances are the Bucs believe that nobody will be able to truly unlock the raw talent Bell possesses. Most fans (at least if you look at social media during games) will be more than ready to say Bell needed to go. He struggles to make contact consistently, is streaky to a detrimental level and a butcher at first base. So when he’s belting homeruns for someone in the playoffs come 2023 and it isn’t Pittsburgh, remember what you thought of him right now.

Do I know the Pirates are never going to unlock what Bell has to offer? Of course not, but if they don’t and someone else does, lets see it for what it is, a team that failed to develop someone and had no vision for how to get it done.

Rather than pining for what might have been, let’s pine for how the other teams have taken what the Pirates couldn’t unlock and helped it flourish. Let’s hope the changes being made as we speak to the development and scouting departments take the Pirates from a club that gave up too soon to a club that squeezes every ounce out of the talent they cultivate.

That’s the goal. Take someone like Clay Holmes and his huge frame and rather than eventually give up on the obvious talent, find a way to help him use it to better the club. When you start seeing things like that happen, you’ll know it’s working.

None of this means the Pirates will keep everyone and we’ll never watch what we’re seeing in this year’s playoffs again, but it sure would be nice to see the Pirates be the club flipping an Archer type for two or three big pieces that their system converts into realized talents.

Team building on a budget is a tight rope act, one the Pirates have played with a ten pound ball bearing in one pocket. Time to cast away the dead weight of past failure and affect change, above all else, translating talent from raw to realized is job number one for the new organization. If not, the next bad move we’ll be kicking ourselves over will be this front office.

Why Did Ben Cherington Take the Pirates Job

One of the most often brought up reasons for optimism that Cherington will be afforded the money he needs to get the job done when the time comes has doubled as the answer to that question. Many including myself have presumed he and Travis Williams would never have taken this position if they weren’t given some assurance they would indeed be afforded the ability to get the job done.

Now, that presumption could apply for anyone they hired couldn’t it? So why did everyone jump to that for these two? Williams is easy, he left an upward pointing career in another sport altogether to take the team president role with the Pirates, and it’s hard to imagine he’d do that without some kind of assurance. That said, it’s also hard to imagine he was equipped with the baseball knowledge to really understand where they were, beyond the record. It’s not like he was talking to Cherington before he accepted to talk plans and options.

Ben Cherington has real baseball experience, he’s won a World Series and he built the team, he also followed that success by butchering the next phase in Boston but it’s fair to say he still has a solid reputation. Working in the Blue Jays system in a lesser role, Ben’s name came up for most openings around the league and he passed on even interviewing for most of them. So why did he choose the Pirates to dip his toe back in?

How do you go from running a club like the Red Sox to wanting to run a club like the Pirates? Again, he’s said he has assurances he will have the money he needs when the time comes but let’s face it, he could have gone elsewhere and not had to play a game like that, he could have jumped in somewhere and been afforded the freedom to do this exactly as he’d like and not wait for resources. Probably could have started closer to the goal elsewhere, so again, why here?

Alright, so it took a while to get here, but here’s what I got. After 2021 the Pirates have exactly 3 Million dollars committed. That’s the buyout figure for Gregory Polanco and it’s all that’s on the books for the Pirates as of now as they head into 2022. Obviously that could change as he could extend some players or even bring someone in but that’s an incredible reality.

Why is that appealing to a GM you ask? Well, he isn’t stuck with anything. This team will be exactly what he envisioned much quicker than if he had taken over a club that had say 50 million committed that far out.

That’s not to say there isn’t anyone on the club he’ll want to keep, instead it’s a situation that gives him the ability to choose for himself every single facet of who’s on this club. He doesn’t have to find a place for anyone to make room. He doesn’t have to sacrifice a roster spot for an aging veteran who isn’t part of his plan. The Pirates are the baseball equivalent to a blank canvas and if he has the vision to create, he can paint whatever he wants.

Its a truly odd situation too, this simply doesn’t happen and ineptitude helped get us here. The rules allow for it, baseball is set up to create situations like this by creating 6 year windows depending on when you get called up where you really don’t have to commit anything to players. Sure, he’ll have to pay them and arbitration will make some of them wind up being expensive, but the point is, he can extend who he wants and move who he doesn’t. He’s not married to anyone and that’s just not typical.

So, there’s one big reason this franchise was probably appealing to Mr. Cherington, but what if Bob Nutting lied to him about the ability to spend commensurate with what he doesn’t spend now? This is more of a blame laden statement that actually means what if he doesn’t win here? Doesn’t that hurt his reputation?

Does it? Is there anyone in the league that wouldn’t just assume Nutting was the problem? In other words, its a fairly safe opportunity. If he fails most people will assume he had handcuffs on and paid for his own parking spot at PNC. True or untrue, everyone in the league will see the basic facts, he has just about the cheapest owner in baseball and his team president is a hockey guy.

I don’t say that to denigrate Travis Williams as much as to say right or wrong he too provides cover for Cherington should this go south. For all the success he enjoyed in the NHL, he’s never experienced anything in MLB and it’s an easier sell that he didn’t help the situation than trying to convince a college student to eat ramen.

Everything could go great too, it really could. When your team stops being a middling franchise and topples all the way to the bottom of the league the talent infusion can be incredible. In his first draft since joining the Pirates he picked near the top of the board and brought in some really nice talent. He traded Starling Marte for more elite talent too. Now it doesn’t mean Nutting has told the truth, but that talent will still play, the problem has been and until proven otherwise will be keeping said talent in town beyond their rookie deals.

The point of all this is, for Ben Cherington this position is a low risk, high reward shot at being a GM again in the league. Sounds a whole lot like how he’ll have to approach bringing in even more talent.

The Pirates Rule 5 Protection Plan

Whenever the Rule 5 Draft is brought up to Pirates Fans it’s almost a guarantee that you will hear about how Pittsburgh acquired “The Great One” Roberto Clemente in 1954, even though the Dodgers tried, unsuccessfully” to hide him in Montreal. Now we all know that a move like this one is extremely unlikely; especially since the guidelines have changed over time. In the 65 years since the Pirates were luckily enough to find themselves in the #1 spot, you can pretty much count on one hand, the number of times a Rule 5 selection has gone onto find success in the Majors. So, most of the time when I focus on the Rule 5 Draft, it is mainly about seeing who the Pirates choose to protect, rather than any player they might select because it could be a sign of plans for the future.

Prior to participating in his first Rule 5 Draft as Pirates General Manager, Ben Cherington added Ke’Bryan Hayes, Will Craig, Oneil Cruz, Blake Cederlind and Cody Ponce to Pittsburgh’s 40-Man Roster in order to protect them from being picked up by another ball club. Obviously these were important, first moves, by Cherington as four out of five made their Major League Debuts in the 2020 season and a few could find themselves on the Opening Day Roster come 2021.

So. that leads me to question, who will be the players that Ben Cherington dubs as potential contributors for the future? In my eyes there are a few obvious selections, with a pair of them among the Pirates Top Prospects and on top of that all three just got done participating at the Alternate Site in Altoona.

First is right-handed starting pitcher Max Kranick, who slots in at #24 on MLB Pipeline. Selected in the 11th Round (340 overall) of the 2016 MLB June Amateur Draft out of Valley View High School in Archbald, PA, a small suburb outside Scranton, he signed for 300,000; triple the slot value at the time to keep him from going to the University of Virginia.

During his last full season of work in 2019, Kranick was able to add velocity to his fastball (55 grade); topping out at 97 mph. His slider (50 grade) also worked well, but as of right now he does not have a consistent third pitch. Control (55 grade) is his forte as he looks to limit walks and create weak contact. Kranick ended the year at High A Bradenton, sporting a 3.79 ERA and a 1.189 WHIP, but his strike out rate dropped a full 2.5 batters per nine innings to 6.4.

Next up is infielder Rodolfo Castro; currently the #26 Prospect on MLB Pipeline and #12 on FanGraphs. Signed on October 30, 2015 from the Dominican Republic as a 16-year-old shortstop, Castro smashed 14 homers and collected 29 total extra base hits in the first half of the season in Low A Greensboro last year. This resulted in a mid-season promotion to the High A Bradenton Marauders where he struggled at first; slashing 132/.192/.206 in the month of July with only a single home run. Luckily for Castro he quickly adjusted and things did get better, a lot better. For the month of August he hit .299/.346/.443, with 2 homers and 10 extra base hits in only 26 games.

Ben Cherington and Derek Shelton have shown that they like players who provide versatility in the field and Castro fits that bill perfectly. More comfortable at second base, he can slide to shortstop and even third base with ease; doing so at every level. Somewhat of a surprise addition at the Alternate Site in Altoona, Castro regularly caught the eye of Curve Broadcaster, Garett Mansfield, both at the plate and in the field.

And finally you have lefty reliever Braeden Ogle. Ogle was drafted by Pittsburgh in the 4th Round of the 2016 MLB June Amateur Draft from Jensen Beach High School in Florida. Once considered a starting option, he fully transitioned to the bullpen in 2019; finding success at both Low and High A, especially the final seven games of the season. In 11 innings, which is a small sample size, he reduced his WHIP from 1.200 to .971, his ERA from 3.69 to 3.18 and continued his decline in BB/9, landing at 2.4.

With a plus fastball (grade 55/60) and an average to above average curve (grade 50/55), the former #24 Prospect on FanGraphs has the ability to make a push for a spot in the bullpen at PNC Park within the next couple of years.

After these three the decisions become a lot tougher to make as a slew of pitchers come to mind; including Blake Weiman, Noe Toribio, Santiago Florez and Travis MacGregor. Then you have position players like Chris Sharpe, Robbie Glendinning, Francisco Acuna and Bligh Madris; along with catcher Deon Stafford. Plus you have to remember that everyone listed just became eligible for the Rule 5 Draft this year, so there are even more guys that have held this status for at least one year or more.

Unfortunately for all of these guys 2020 was an extreme disappointment as they were left to their own devices once the shutdown occurred in the beginning of March and the Minor League Baseball Season was eventually cancelled. However, the good news is that the scouts from the 29 other organizations haven’t been able to get a good look at these guys for over a year, and in MacGregor’s case two due to missing all of 2019 with Tommy John Surgery, which could lead to them being able to fall through the cracks without having to be officially protected. Although, if I was forced to choose any in addition to the first three; Florez, MacGregor, Acuna, Sharpe and Glendinning would be my top options, in that order.

In the end I feel like Cherington might not move beyond the top three due to a lot of other roster decisions that will need to be made, with minimal spaces left to fill. Also I am not sure how active this Rule 5 Draft is going to be in general since there wasn’t a Minor League Season to evaluate talent, as well as the fact that teams have already reported they will be taking cost cutting measures during the off-season. However, as it is with everything coming up, we will just have to wait and see because the MLB season is not finished yet; and nothing can begin for the Pirates until that happens.

For the Pirates, Anger is Far Better Than Apathy

I’ve been a Pirates fan for all of my conscience life, it’s never been an easy road if I’m honest. I’ve been angry at times and frustrated almost always, but I always cared. I always held out hope that this owner would get it right. That this GM would understand his market and attack team building the right way.

That wasn’t just the Nutting tenure mind you, that stretches all the way back to the Pittsburgh Associates and on to Kevin McClatchy which blended right into the Ogden/Nutting regime we now have. Through multiple GMs, some who had a transparent plan and others who kept their methods closer to the vest.

For instance, Dave Littlefield told all of us exactly what he planned, the Five Year Plan, and he failed miserably. Huntington actually did get a window open but ownership stopped short of letting it tip over the edge. We have no clue what Cherington will end up doing yet, but the point is we’ve been through a whole bunch in Pittsburgh and through it all we’ve experienced just about every range of emotion.

There is a guy who comments on every story I write with NUTTING HAS ZERO INTEREST IN COMPETING! It’s literally every story, no matter the subject. Remembrance of Clemente, trade rumors, signings, roster construction, robo umps, what the piece is about doesn’t matter in the slightest. Irritates the hell out of me if I’m honest, I work hard on these columns and it’s difficult to take at times personally, but at least he’s mad. At least he still cares enough to be upset that his team isn’t winning. Over time I’ve come to look at his comment as something I wait for and more than that, I wait for the day he stops. Not because I think he’ll just start reading and provide real feedback, no, I wait because he is a barometer for where the fans are. If he stops putting that comment out, I’ll assume he’s passed anger and headed for apathy.

When you just stop caring, that’s something the Pirates won’t easily come back from. You can entice angry fans to come back when the product improves, but once you’ve allowed them to reach apathy, you have a whole new hurdle to jump in regaining their eyes, ears and indeed hearts.

While winning 19 games in 2020 might end up being a good thing for the franchise moving forward as they select the number one overall draft pick in 2021, the Pirates didn’t do themselves any favors by looking so bad doing it. Not having the players to get the job done is one thing, we all knew that before the season started. But I could have told you a week into September JT Riddle would get cut after the season, in fact I did, so did just about everyone. What was to be gained by watching him play? If you want to avoid driving fans into the dangerous territory of not caring, I suggest showing them you don’t care by playing guys like that over the multitude of options they had was a bad move.

How about seemingly purposefully blowing rare good starts by using Miguel Del Pozo to secure a tie. Yeah, I know, injuries right? Sure, but situationally, there were better options. How about showing the fans you still haven’t learned that Dovydas Neverauskas is not someone you can count on? I mean toward the end of the season they certainly made that decision but after watching them trot him to the mound for 40 of the 60 games, who was left to see that you finally stopped forcing him into games with 15 left?

Evaluation is one thing, but let’s take this off of the fans and their apathy and let’s talk about the players themselves. If I’m Trevor Williams and I’m struggling all season to get outs, certainly I have to wear some of that. It’s my right arm after all that isn’t missing bats, but if you put a guy in center field behind me who simply has zero experience and has no command over the position, I might feel a bit more pressure to be something I’m not. I might try to get strikeouts instead of hunting contact. Which leads to picking around the strike zone and walking more. Which leads to traffic on the base paths and pressure situations. It may prevent me from confidently throwing my high fast ball because if I get that pop up to shallow center the probability of it being caught is less than league average.

Trevor isn’t the best guy for this honestly, but insert a faceless, nameless grey figure. As a player, if I don’t feel you’re trying to win by supporting my efforts, how could I be anything but about my individual situation?

Professional athletes will tell you none of that matters. It’s their job and to a certain degree it is, but I’m a fan, if I spend time thinking like that you have to imagine thoughts like that at least creep in on occasion.

Imagine being a rookie with all of 14 MLB starts under your belt and you are tossing a no hitter. Medically you have to leave the game, it’s something you understand and support, after all you’ve been talking to the doctors and trainers too, wasn’t even a shock. Then your coach doesn’t use the strongest pieces he has to at least show you he wants to get the game locked down for you. It’s not about having no options, it’s about having 3 good ones, and 3 less than optimal ones and choosing the first 2 from the less than optimal category.

Maybe this meant nothing to Mitch Keller, as I said, these guys are pros, but as I’m sitting there watching it unfold, I can tell you I certainly felt for him. I at least felt they didn’t care about trying to have this kid who is very much so counted on as part of the future leave with a good taste in his mouth. Joe Musgrove experienced much of the same.

Bad bullpen, I get it. Worse usage, I don’t get it.

The TV ratings for Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball fell this season and as Dejan Kovacevic said in his Daily Shot on Tuesday this was a bit of a shock. It’s a shock because despite being a bad baseball team for the best part of the time every game was broadcast, the Bucs have always pulled strong numbers through the years.

This season should have been no different, if anything it should have gone up. MLB overall did, up 2% as a whole. Here in Pittsburgh not so much, and I can’t help but feel that dreaded apathy started to set in.

There were nights if I didn’t have to watch I can’t say I would have. In fact Craig and I openly felt bad when the other was assigned a game at times. When diehards start to, well, die, there is a problem.

I have no doubt should the team return to relevancy the fans will return by in large, but the situation is not easy to recover from. Even when you do something good like draft a number one overall player, it’s not met with visions of him closing out a playoff series, it’s met with expectations of when he’ll be moved or even the assumption they’ll somehow choose the wrong guy.

Does any of this matter? I mean if they do pick the right guy and they do indeed build a team around him that brings good baseball back to the Burgh the fans will come back right? Yeah, most will, but trust won’t. That’s the part that the club is dangerously toying with. It’s also the part the club needs to prove is part of the past.

Look, this club is never going to spend. Maybe Cherington and Williams have received assurances they can add at some point, I believe they think they have, but even that isn’t going to ensure they can keep a Gerrit Cole or Rocker type beyond original team control for too long. They need to build a strong system and be able to refill the coffers from within more often than not. We won’t know for some time if any of this is going to work, or if they’ve made the right hires, but step one is not losing the fans on the way there.

The Pirates Arbitration Overload

The Major League Baseball Playoffs are in full swing, but for the Pittsburgh Pirates and a handful of other ball clubs, the off-season has already begun. Setting lineups, in game decisions and the often revolving door to and from the alternate site in Altoona are all distant memories. Now some true tests of the Pirates Front Office, especially as it pertains to the future of the organization, lay ahead. Foremost in my mind are the decisions concerning arbitration eligible players, mostly due to the sheer volume. My brain also tends to shift towards Rule 5 Draft Protection, which I plan to address in an upcoming article. So for now, let’s just focus on the players that General Manager Ben Cherington and crew have to decide to tender or non-tender, along with how much money they should offer to those they want to keep.

Currently the Pirates have a minimum of 20 players that are arbitration eligible, including many, approximately half, being given their first opportunity to earn more than the standard league minimum yearly salary.

Below is one of the more up to date Arbitration Trackers from Spotrac. However, even this detailed listed is not entirely correct and current as JT Riddle recently elected free agency after being sent on an outright assignment to the AAA Indianapolis Indians and by my calculations, as well as other sites, Luke Maile is scheduled to enter his 2nd year of arbitration in 2021. This would still keep the number of players right around 20 and is sufficiently comprehensive enough for the purpose of this column.

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/arbitration/pittsburgh-pirates/

If you are not a little overwhelmed/excited/anxious just looking at this list, which if tendered would represent half of the 40 Man Roster, I might call you a liar. It sure gives me fits at times and leads me to hypothesize on repeat exactly how Cherington will address each decision, but I have also been looking at it regularly since before the season even ended.

Before we fully dive into some of the possible choices that I might make if given the opportunity to magically switch places with Cherington, let’s break down the arbitration process and how players become eligible, for those who are maybe not as well versed as some. If you have this information down to a science, you can probably skip or skim the next few paragraphs.

Major League Baseball defines an arbitration eligible player as one who has three or more years of Major League service time, but less than six years and is not already under contract for the next season. Of course there is an exception, often referred to as “Super Two” Players. “Super Two” is a special designation that allows a certain group of players to become eligible for arbitration before reaching three years of service time. In order to qualify a player must rank in the top 22 percent, in terms of service time, among those who have accumulated between two and three years in the Majors. Usually, this applies to players who have two years and at least 130 days of service time, although the specific cutoff date varies from year to year.

As far as how the arbitration process will progress for the 2020-2021 off-season, clubs have until December 2nd to tender a contract offer to eligible players for the upcoming year. I should note that the team has the ability to cut a player’s salary offer by up to 20% based off the previous year’s contract. Any player that is “non-tendered” automatically and immediately become a free agent. Once a tendered contract is made, the player and his respective ball club have until January 8th to come to agreement on a salary. If an agreement is not reached, this when things can get ugly as Chris and I discussed in the most recent episode of Bucs In The Basement, as the the contract in question officially goes to arbitration.

In an arbitration hearing both sides have a chance to present evidence as to why their salary is more accurate, with clubs bringing up each and every area where a player struggles in order to make their case. In the end the panel of arbitrators chooses either the salary figure of either the player or the club. For example last year JT Realmuto took the Phillies to arbitration, asking for $12.4 million. The Phillies on the other hand had offered $10. Eventually Realmuto would lose and have to accept Philadelphia’s proposed salary, which he was none too happy about.

Now back to the decisions that Ben Cherington will have to make as they move through the off-season, with a little insight as to how I would proceed if given the power to do so.

As I look over the list there are a minimum three “non-tender“ candidates that jump of the page, a couple of others that I would truly consider just letting walk, others that I would tender to trade or at least attempt to trade and a few that I see as possible pieces of the future; if even for the next couple of years.

Non-tender Candidates

Yacksel Rios

No offense to Yacksel, but this is a pretty simple decision. The young right handed reliever has made 13 appearances for the Pirates over the last two seasons; posting a 6.28 ERA and 1.395 WHIP, while striking out 13 and walking 7 over 14.1 innings. Unfortunately for Rios his season ended early as he was placed on the IL in mid-August with right shoulder inflammation.

Jose Osuna

Osuna has gotten a few looks over the past few years; impressing in the pinch hitter role and utility infielder/outfielder at times over the past few seasons. This past season lead the league in pinch hit home runs for the season with 5. He also posted a .325 Batting Average, a 1.232 OPS and 10 total extra base hits in this role. In 2020 he bounced back and forth between PNC and Altoona; ultimately slashing .205/.244/.397 with 4 homers in 78 at bats.

Kyle Crick

As it pertains to Crick this decision is based mostly on his drop in velocity during the 2020 season. In 2018 his fastball velocity averaged 95.8, in 2019 it was 95.3 and this year it fell to 91.8. Throughout the season Crick battled injuries, only making 7 appearances. It is possible that this is an easy explanation for the change in velocity, however, I am not sure it is worth the risk to find out.

Michael Feliz

Feliz is another reliever that caught the injury bug this season as he made on 3 appearances and lasted only 1.2 total innings. His ERA was a outrageously inflated 32.40, with a 3.60 WHIP to go along with it. In 2019 Feliz had shown some promise by striking out 73 batters in 56.1 innings of work.

On The Fence

Trevor Williams

Williams was able to receive his full compliment of starts during the truncated season, but could never really get things going. In 11 starts, across 55.1 innings, Williams allowed a MLB leading 15 homers, posted a 6.18 ERA and a 1.57 WHIP and struck out only 49 batters. This would be a tough decision for GMBC to make, but it could be a very necessary move to open up a spot in the rotation to one of the younger starters; such as JT Brubaker or Cody Ponce.

Nick Burdi

This is a tough one for me because the kid is just so easy to root for. After a gruesome injury in 2019 and eventual season ending TOS surgery, Burdi returned to the mound with a vengeance in 2020; pumping out 100 mph fastballs, only to have his year come to an end after 3 appearances as he once again hit the IL with right elbow/bicep pain.

John Ryan Murphy

Murphy’s place on the Opening Day Roster wasn’t solidified until Luke Maile broke his finger just prior to the beginning of the season. As defense first journeyman catcher, JRM’s work at the plate lead to a dismal .172 AVG, with a .433 OPS in 58 at bats. Behind the dish he was a serviceable back up to Jason Stallings. Across 23 games and 159.1 innings he earned a 1 DRS and a .8 FRM.

Tender To Trade

Adam Frazier

During the past off-season, Frazier, was seen as a potential trade target for multiple teams, however, nothing ever came to fruition. Once again at the most recent trade deadline, Frazier’s name kept surfacing. In the equivalent of 4 MLB seasons with the Pirates, Frazier has shown himself to be around a league average hitter (.275 AVG and 100 wRC+), with defensive upside (6 DRS IF/OF, 6 OAA 2B 2020 and 11 OAA 2019).

Chris Stratton

Stratton was a pleasant surprise out of the Pirates bullpen during the shortened season. In 27 games and 30 innings of work he posted a 3.90 ERA and a 1.300 WHIP, while striking striking out 39. These numbers should earn a Stratton another look in 2021, but I wouldn’t turn any team away if they came looking.

Erik Gonzalez

Gonzalez came out swinging to begin 2020. During a 7 game stretch in the beginning of August Gonzalez saw his average shoot up from .125 to .349 and his OPS reach as high as .907. However, as we all are aware, this streak did not continue and over the last 30 games and 111 at bats Gonzalez has slashed .225/.270/.351; leaving his yearly numbers sitting right around those for his career at a .252 average and a .679 OPS.

Colin Moran

Through the first seven games of the season he was slashing .333/.385/.875 with 4 home runs in 24 at bats. Then reality sank in as he proceeded to hit .228 over his next 127 at bats. Some of the power stuck around as he hit another 6 homers and 20 total extra base hits, but he saw his once astronomical numbers slip to .247/.325/.472 at the end of the year. During the year, Moran also found himself playing 1st Base on a regular basis; posting a -1 OAA at the position.

Joe Musgrove

Unfortunately Big Joe was unable to pitch a full season, making only 8 total starts on the year. In a limited 39.2 innings of work Musgrove was able to strike out 55 batters, while earning a 3.86 ERA and a 1.235 WHIP; ending the year with two strong outings. It is well known that Musgrove was nearly traded to Toronto just prior to the deadline and that there were other inretested parties.

Josh Bell

Bell is one of the more interesting arbitration eligible player for the Pirates as he earned $4.8 million in his first arb year; coming of a season where he hit .277 with 37 home runs, thanks mostly to a near historic stretch in April and May. Now he comes into his second arb year having hit .226 with 8 homers in 195 at bats. At the end of the season he was relegated almost strictly to the designated hitter role, which surely causes his future expectations to take a slight hit.

Nik Turley

On the surface his 4.98 ERA looks less than optimal. However, his 3.88 FIP and 1.11 WHIP show promise. After not having played a Major League game since 2017, Turley was sure to be a little rusty. I would like to see him get another shot in 2021 and possibly build up some trade capital along the way.

Richard Rodriguez

RichRod cemented himself as the closer of at least the near future by posting a 2.70 ERA and .857 WHIP, while striking out 34 in 23.1 innings. This situation is pretty clear cut; hope he pitches well and trade him at the deadline.

Potential Pieces

Jameson Taillon

Taillon is going through his second arbitration after having not thrown a big league pitch since May 1, 2019. The former first round pick (2nd Overall) is coming off his 2nd Tommy John surgery, so this is more of a see what they have and/or hope he can make another comeback type of move; plus after all he has been through and how hard he worked in his rehab, he has truly earned it.

Jacob Stallings

As the Team MVP, Stallings slashed .248/.326/.376 with 3 homers. However, it was really his work behind the plate that made him stand out. He finished the season with 7 DRS and a 2.3 FRM, good for 5th place in overall defensive fWAR at 6.3. For those who doubt Stallings overall value, I get it. He is never going to be the perennial slugger many want behind the dish; that’s just not the type of player he is.

Chad Kuhl

In the beginning Kuhl was slowly brought into the fold slowly as a part of a “piggyback”, after having not pitched since June of 2018 and undergoing Tommy John Surgery in September of the same year. After struggling off and on through his first nine appearances he ended the season on a high as he struck out 11 and allowed only one earned run over his last 12 innings of work.

Steven Brault

Surprisingly, Brault has probably been the Pirates most consistent starter over the past two seasons; really hitting his stride in the second half of the 2020 season. In this role he posted a 2.53 ERA and 1.055 WHIP in 10 starts; including the two hit, one run complete game against the Cardinals in his next to last outing of the year.

Now, I am almost positive that Cherington will not stick to my plan of attack when it comes to addressing arbitration with each and every player. However, I definitely look forward to seeing how he proceeds with some of the more crucial and potentially telling decisions in order to have a better idea of what his vision is for the future of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Rewrite The Script

As I sat down to watch the MLB Playoffs over the past week or so as a fan of game, not just the Pittsburgh Pirates, I was inundated with catchphrases, rallying cries, alternative nicknames and hashtags for the teams that were left chasing a very unique World Series Championship. #ChangeTheGame for the White Sox, #FlipTheScript and Slam Diego for Padres and #BottomFeeders for the Marlins; along with many others. This reminded of a time, which seems like years ago, when I was getting ready for Pirates Fest and #RewriteTheScript was plastered across my Twitter feed. The Pittsburgh Pirates, now under a new regime of both Baseball and Business Operations, would be unveiling new uniforms in somewhat of an homage to the team’s of early 1990’s.

Pirates Fans, young and old alike, couldn’t contain their excitement; immediately rushing online and into the team store to get their new jersey, adorned with the name of their favorite Pirates player or a blank one for the overly cautious, yet realistically educated Pittsburgh Fan.

Flash forward ahead a little over nine months; having endured an abysmal 19-41 shortened season and heading into General Manager Ben Cherington’s first full off-season at the helm of what many have described as a sinking ship, with almost every move he makes being labeled as reshuffling chairs on the Titanic, I can’t help but think that many have forgotten the original message. All that’s left is newly minted Pirates uniform in the closet and the familiar empty feeling of October baseball without the Buccos. But, does it have to and will it always be this way?

Before you start to think that I am going carry water for the Pirates new front office, you can stop right there. I am acutely aware that we as Pirates Fans have been sold a similar bill of goods for more years than I care to count, I know that Bob Nutting is still the owner and I realize that Ben Cherington has been cultivated from an institutional philosophy and structure akin to Neil Huntington’s. However, it’s not like any of us can accurately see into the future and know exactly what is going to happen with the Pirates organization. Also, none of us could be so foolish as to think, things were going to change in one season because it surely took more than one for the Pirates to get where they are.

In my honest opinion, I believe that it may take longer than many are predicting for the Pirates to get back on track and for that potential future window of being competitive to open; if they get there at all. That’s right! It is possible the current build will not be successful. Unfortunately, we will be a few years further into the future before this would become apparent and the Pirates will be forced to start all over again or continue to rebuild as I have been told numerous times by the Pittsburgh faithful.

However, what if it does work? Amazingly enough that is also a possibility. Imagine being in the playoffs three, four or five years from now; being able to use our own hashtag. One that was ultimately created in January of 2020 and just as quickly forgotten.

The journey toward each of these alternate futures begins now; with upcoming decisions concerning arbitration, whether or not to pick up Chris Archer’s option, possible trades to be made, players to be acquired and positions within the organization being filled and/or changed.

Now I know that many Pirates Fans already have flags planted firmly on either side of the isle; from the “Spend Nutting, Win Nutting”and “Ington” groups to eternal optimists and future prospects/farm system believers, all of which are going to be disappointed or down right miserable at different times during this process. However, that’s exactly what this is going to be, a process; with every Pirates Fan being hopeful, some more vocal than others, that one day we will get to type #RewriteTheScript as we cheer on our Pittsburgh Pirates in Buctober.