Bench players possess power, versatility
Jordy Mercer at shortstop. His double to center drove in the Pirates’ second run. But there was more. Adam Frazier led off the seventh inning as a pinch hitter by driving a pitch high into the right-field seats. The 407-foot home run provided the winning run and was Frazier’s first homer in the big leagues after he had just three in 1,354 minor-league at-bats. It also led to this wonderful tweet from the Pirates: “Down Town Goes Frazier!” Clever. “Not river pop, but I’ve seen him hit balls farther than you think he can hit them,” Hurdle said of Frazier. “He can hit a baseball.”
Bench players provided all five of the Pirates’ RBIs.
Neal Huntington failed in the offseason to build an adequate starting pitching staff, but he struck gold with his bench acquisitions. Joyce, Rodriguez and David Freese have been so good — better than many of the starters, actually — that it’s almost impossible to say which one has had the greatest impact.
Is it Freese? It’s probably inaccurate to call him a bench player now because he starts nearly every day at third base ahead of Jung Ho Kang or at first base for John Jaso against a lefthanded pitcher. He is hitting .280 with 10 home runs and 42 RBIs. The Pirates are 40-27 when he is in the lineup.
Is it Rodriguez? He has started at every position except in center field, catcher and pitcher. Hurdle has called him the best defender in baseball among bench players. He also has hit 10 home runs, beating up opposing pitchers with the ferocity he has been known to attack water coolers.
Or is it Joyce? He has hit .306 as a pinch hitter with 12 walks, four home runs and 13 RBIs. That RBI figure is just three shy of Willie Stargell’s franchise record set in 1982.
I’m going with Rodriguez. I love the way he plays the game with passion and energy.
Huntington knew of Rodriguez because he played with the Pirates in 2015, but he deserves credit for identifying Freese and Joyce, who were looking for a place to resurrect their career after a bad season with the Los Angeles Angels. Freese signed a one-year contract for $3 million well into spring training. Joyce did a one-year, $1 million deal.
Joyce, especially has made an incredible comeback. It’s hard to believe he hit just .174 with five home runs and 21 RBIs in 284 atbats last season. He’s hitting .285 with 10 home runs and 33 RBIs in 144 at-bats with the Pirates. He leads the team with seven homers at PNC Park.
“Obviously, those are eye-catching numbers,” Hurdle said. “Last year was an outlier in his mind. But he needed to put some action into it, not just talk about what he needed to do. He put action behind it. He’s done a fantastic job for us.”
Opposing teams interested in bench help before the trade deadline next Monday have to be looking at Freese, Joyce and Rodriguez, who is playing on a one-year, $2.5 million contract. The Pirates have to listen because all three can leave as a free agent after the season.
The next week is important. The Pirates did what they had to do in the past two series against weaker opponents, taking two of three from Milwaukee and from Philadelphia. They remain very much in the race for a National League wild card.
Unless the Pirates fall out of it by losing four or five of the next five games against Seattle and Milwaukee, I’m keeping Rodriguez, Freeze and Joyce. I want them on my team.