It’s time for Pirates to deliver a winning season
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By John Hartsock
jhartsock@altoonamirror.com
The Pittsburgh Pirates' rebuilding project has officially reached its completion.
After spending the past four-plus seasons in baseball purgatory, the Pirates have something on their shoulders this season that they haven't had in several years -- the weight of expectations.
While the Pirates were making modest improvement in 2023 -- a 76-86 transition season in which several of the organization's young and promising prospects were getting their feet wet at the major league level -- more will be expected from the Pirates in 2024.
This upcoming season will be a disappointment if the Pirates don't at least climb into the 80-plus win bracket and wage serious contention for a spot in the National League playoffs -- whether as a National League Central Division champion or as one of the league's three Wild Card entries.
"Our goal is to play playoff games in October -- whether that's winning the Central, which is definitely the goal -- or being a playoff-caliber team,'' Derek Shelton -- who begins his fifth season as the Pirates manager this season, but his first with a considerable amount of talent with which to work -- said in an interview on the Pittsburgh Baseball Now website.
"That's something that we're striving for, and I guarantee that every member of our staff and every player will have that goal in mind going into the 2024 season,'' Shelton stressed.
It's a season that will begin on the road, with a four-game series in Miami against the Marlins that starts Thursday afternoon at 4:10 p.m. with the season opener, and which will also include a three-game visit to Washington, before the Pirates celebrate their home opener on Friday afternoon, April 5, against the Baltimore Orioles.
The Pirates re-signed franchise icon Andrew McCutchen to a second straight one-year, $5 million contract this past offseason, and the 37-year-old former National League Most Valuable Player believes that the Pirates' time is now.
"I feel like the Pirates have been under this window of development and rebuilding,'' McCutchen -- a five-time NL All-Star who now has 299 career homers and collected his 2,000th career hit last season -- told the Associated Press this past winter. "That's always the word that you always hear when it comes to teams that may struggle. They've got to find that way to build a championship ballclub.
"I think that we're in a place now where that's out the window. All right, let's put on our big-boy pants and get to work,'' said McCutchen, whose 2023 reunion season with the Bucs ended last Labor Day when he suffered a torn Achilles tendon in a game against the Brewers.
Liover Peguero, who is one of the front-runners for the Pirates' second base job this year, talked about the club's playoff aspirations during the Pirates Fest for the public at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in early January.
"All we wanted to do was to make the playoffs (last year),'' Peguero said in an article that appeared on the Pittsburgh Baseball Now website. "Unfortunately, we didn't. Last year, we didn't have the team that we have this year now.
"I feel like this year is going to be a huge year for us trying to make it to the playoffs,'' Peguero added.
Question mark
The Pirates' starting rotation was a big question mark at the end of last season, when right-handers Mitch Keller and Johan Oviedo were the team's only two traditional, steady starters in an otherwise mix-and-match rotation.
It became an even bigger question mark when Oviedo underwent elbow surgery this past offseason.
After carding a 9-14 record and pitching 177.2 innings in a workhorse role last season, Oviedo developed elbow problems that required Tommy John surgery, and will leave him spending all of the 2024 season, and perhaps some of the 2025 campaign, on the injured list.
That left Keller -- a National League All-Star in 2023, when he logged a 13-9 record with a 4.21 earned run average in 32 starts -- as the only lock in the rotation entering this season.
Keller also struck out 210 batters while walking just 55 in 194.1 innings pitched last season.
The Pirates showed their confidence in Keller, too, by signing him to a five-year, $77 million contract this past offseason.
The major-league arrival of 6-foot-5, 235-pound right-hander Paul Skenes, a flame-thrower who was taken by the Pirates with the first pick of last year's amateur draft out of LSU is anxiously anticipated.
Skenes -- who had two starts with the Altoona Curve late last season -- will start this season at Class AAA Indianapolis.
The Pirates have the option to call Skenes up three weeks into the season, guaranteeing that they will have one more year of club control over the star prospect. If the Pirates implement MLB's Rule 2 and wait until June to summon Skenes, they will gain that additional year of club control, plus avoid the arbitration process.
Skenes, who can reach 102 miles per hour with his fastball, and who also possesses a top-tier slider and changeup as part of his arsenal, has the best arm in the Pirates' entire organization right now.
The Pirates desperately needed to acquire starting pitching help before the Oviedo injury, and it became a crisis situation afterward.
The Bucs went out and picked up two veteran left-handers, Marco Gonzales and Martin Perez, who could stabilize the back end of the rotation, but who also present plenty of question marks in their own right.
Gonzales, 32, a first-round draft pick by the Cardinals in 2013, staggered through an injury-riddled 2023 season with the Mariners, who traded him to the Pirates last December. Gonzales made 10 starts last year with Seattle before a flexor strain in his left forearm sent him to the Injured List. He experienced nerve issues in his elbow later in the season, and those problems eventually required season-ending surgery. He finished the year with a 4-1 record and a 5.22 ERA.
Perez, who will turn 33 next week, was an American League All-Star with the Texas Rangers in 2022, and carded a 10-4 record with a 4.45 ERA for Texas last summer, but struggled last July before being relegated to the bullpen for the rest of the season. Perez went 2-3 with a 6.69 ERA in his final eight starts.
The Pirates announced on Monday that right-hander Jared Jones -- rated as the Bucs' No. 3 prospect by MLB Pipeline -- has been rewarded for an excellent spring and has made the Opening Day roster and will be part of the starting rotation as this season begins.
So will right-hander Luis Ortiz, who saw spot duty in the major leagues last season. The Pirates are hoping that Ortiz, who possesses a very lively arm, can become a solid part of their rotation.
Highly-touted right-hander Quinn Priester, a first-round pick by the Pirates in 2019, had his share of struggles after being called up to the majors last summer. Priester wound up with a 3-3 record and a 7.74 ERA in 10 appearances, including eight starts. The Pirates are looking for a rebound performance from Priester, who will start the season at Indianapolis.
Another once-promising youngster who is currently on the comeback trail is right-hander Roansy Contreras, who seemed to lose all confidence in himself last year before eventually being sent to the minor leagues to figure things out.
Contreras had a poor spring training this year, and, because he is out of options and cannot be sent to the minor leagues again without the Pirates probably losing him via waivers, he has been assigned to the bullpen for the foreseeable future.
The Pirates acquired several other veteran arms this offseason in an effort to expand their starting pitching options.
Lefty Eric Lauer, who struggled in 10 appearances -- including nine starts -- last year with the Brewers, has been picked up by the Bucs, as have right-hander Domingo German, and right-hander Josh Fleming.
Fleming split time as a starting pitcher and in the bullpen last season with the Rays.
The signing of German is an intriguing one. The Pirates took a flyer on German, a right-hander and former New York Yankee who won 18 games in 2019 and pitched a perfect game in 2023, but who also has a checkered past and was put on waivers by the Yankees at the end of last season before he opted for free agency.
Left-hander Bailey Falter -- acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies in a trade midway through last season -- has struggled during his time with the Pirates, including this past spring training. If he improves, he could get a few starting assignments but will more than likely be used in middle relief this season.
Right-hander J.T. Brubaker, who missed all of the 2023 season after being injured in spring training and undergoing Tommy John elbow surgery last April, is expected back by midseason this year, but won't resume a starting pitcher's workload right away.
Successfully filling in all the gaps and building a solid rotation will be very important for now and the future.
Bullpen strength
With the January signing of veteran left-handed reliever Aroldis Chapman, the Pirates' bullpen has the potential to become one of the best in the major leagues this season.
Chapman, a 14-year veteran and seven-time all-star who the Pirates signed to a one-year, $10.5 million free-agent contract, carded a 6-5 record and 3.09 earned run average with six saves in 61 games combined with the Royals and World Champion Rangers in 2023. He has 321 career saves since arriving in the big leagues as a heralded flame-throwing phenom with the Reds back in 2009.
Chapman is likely to be used as a setup man for two-time NL All-Star closer David Bednar, a lock-down right-hander whose 39 saves last season tied him for the league lead with the Giants' Camilo Doval.
The Pirates should have the sixth and seventh innings capably covered as well, with right-handers Carmen Mlodzinski and Colin Holderman available in those spots, along with lefty Ryan Borucki, who was impressive last season after being acquired from the Blue Jays.
Mlodzinski has been sidelined by right forearm tenderness for the past couple of weeks, and will start this season on the 15-day Injured List, while Holderman (flu) will start the season on the 10-day Injured List.
Right-hander Hunter Stratton and left-hander Jose Hernandez impressed during relief stints in spring training. Stratton was named to the Opening Day roster, while Hernandez will begin the year in the minor leagues.
Non-roster invitee Ryan Ryder, a right-hander, has also made the Opening Day roster as another bullpen option.
Right-hander Dauri Moreta, who shined in middle relief for the Pirates last season, suffered an injury to the ligament in his pitching elbow during spring training and will miss the entire season after recently undergoing Tommy John surgery.
It's a bullpen that could shorten a ton of games for the Pirates this season, and make them a very formidable opponent with a lead late in a game.
Cruz returns
Along with arrival of Skenes, the return of talented shortstop Oneil Cruz to the Pirates' lineup is the most heavily-anticipated happening with the Bucs this season.
The switch-hitting Cruz missed nearly all of last season after suffering a broken leg on a slide into home plate last April, and the Pirates are waiting to see if he can return to the impressive batting form that enabled him to hit 17 home runs and drive in 54 runs in half a season after his arrival midway through the 2022 season.
Cruz had an excellent spring this year in which he was among the major league leaders in home runs.
Third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes has always been a stellar fielder -- reflected in his winning the NL's Rawlings Gold Glove award for that position in 2023 -- but he also blossomed into one of the Pirates' top hitters in the second half of last season as well, finishing with 15 home runs, 64 RBIs and a .271 batting average in 125 games.
Hayes signed a $50 million contract with the Pirates through the 2029 season that could wind up being a great bargain for the Bucs.
There was a battle between Peguero and Jared Triolo for the second base job entering spring training, but Triolo has won it -- at least temporarily - by having a solid spring, while an illness limited Peguero's filed time. The Pirates wound up optioning him to the minors.
Ji Hwan Bae could also get a look at second base this season, while once-promising prospect Nick Gonzales will start the season at Indianapolis.
Triolo, who was impressive both offensively and defensively after being called up by the Pirates last season when Hayes suffered an injury, is a versatile talent who can play third base, second base or first base.
Speaking of first base, the Pirates attempted to fill a need there with the offseason signing of left-handed hitting Rowdy Tellez, who belted 35 homers two seasons ago with the Brewers but dropped to only 13 round-trippers during an injury-plagued 2023 season.
Connor Joe, who hit 11 homers last season, will supply some pop from the right side at the first base position this year.
Playing catch
The Pirates have been adamant that Henry Davis -- a first-round, first pick by the Bucs in the draft out of the University of Louisville in 2021 -- is their catcher now and in the future.
Davis did well in his time behind the plate and at the bat during spring training, and appears to be the Pirates' top catcher as this season opens.
Last year, however, Davis was used primarily in right field, while highly-touted Endy Rodriquez and Jason Delay shared the majority of the catching duties.
But Rodriquez suffered injuries involving the ulna collateral ligament and flexor tendon in his arm last November while playing winter baseball in the Dominican Republic. The injuries required surgery and will put him on the sidelines this season.
The Davis situation became further clouded when the Pirates acquired two-time National League all-star catcher Yasmani Grandal this past offseason, but Grandal will open this season on the 10-day Injury List with a foot injury, and Jason Delay -- who was solid last year behind the plate for the Bucs -- will back up Davis, to start the season.
Davis has the type of talented power bat that plays anywhere in the lineup, but at what position he gets carded in remains open to question. He could also see time in the outfield again, or at first base, or be used as a designated hitter.
This season should clear up some of the questions surrounding Davis and his long-term role with the Bucs.
Outfield pop
Two-time NL All-Star Bryan Reynolds had another solid year for the Pirates last season, when he belted 24 home runs, had a team-leading 84 RBIs, and batted .264 while appearing in 145 games.
Reynolds, who started in left field last year, provides a steady everyday presence along with his considerable talent with the bat.
Jack Suwinski manned center field last season and did a decent job there, while hitting a team-leading 26 home runs and driving in 74 runs. Suwinski has been notoriously ineffective against left-handed pitchers, however, and his strikeout numbers (172 in 447 at-bats a year ago) need to come down.
The recent acquisition of Michael A. Taylor, a former Gold Glove center fielder who hit a career-high 21 home runs last season for the Minnesota Twins, could be a game-changer for the Bucs. Taylor will likely play center, where he covers tons of ground, while Reynolds and Suwinski will likely man the corner outfield spots.
Josh Palacios -- a new addition in 2023 -- was a pleasant surprise last season in right field, hitting 10 home runs and driving in 40 runs in 91 games, but was slowed down by a leg injury in spring training and will start this season at Indianapolis. The Pirates added another outfield bat this offseason, acquiring right fielder Edward Olivares, who hit 12 home runs with the Royals a year ago.
McCutchen is expected to see most of his playing time as a designated hitter, but he could also be inserted in right field on occasion.
Bae and Joe are other candidates for time in the outfield, as is Canaan Smith-Njigba. The Pirates also picked up veteran Billy McKinney from the Yankees this offseason for depth.
With promise and question marks alike across their team landscape in 2024, the Pirates are hoping that all the pieces of their puzzle come together and that the sum total of all their various parts can add up to playoff contention for them as soon as this season.
John Hartsock can be reached at jhartsock@altoonamirror.com