Stuck in the middle of nowhere
Neal Huntington listened. Intently, too.
But in the end, nothing that came across the Pirates general manager’s desk Wednesday involving a potential deal for closer Felipe Vazquez made sense.
“We did not feel that this was the right time, nor do we feel like we got the right potential return to [ trade Vazquez],” Huntington said.
With Vazquez still with the Pirates after the trade deadline, the team is confronted with a bit of an odd competitive landscape.
The Pirates aren’t in total rebuild mode, as evidenced by Huntington saying, “We’re still in it this year, technically speaking.” But they also began the day Thursday with the secondworst record in the National
League, 10 ½ games out of first place in the NL Central Division and 10 back of the wild card.
While playoff baseball should not be a realistic focal point for fans the rest of the way, there are a bunch of reasons these final 54 games matter. What are they? Let’s take a look.
Infield logjam
This shouldn’t come as a shock given his .169 batting average and alarming strikeout rate ( 60 in 172 atbats), but the Pirates were forced to keep Jung Ho Kang, 32, at the trade deadline.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Pirates decided Friday to designate him for assignment.
“That is a valid question and conversations that we need to have as a group here now that the trade deadline has come and gone,” Huntington said of potentially DFA’ing Kang.
Why do that? Because Kang, who is on an expiring contract, is taking up space. Colin Moran, Kevin Newman and Adam Frazier each have done things this season to earn regular playing time, and the Pirates should take this final stretch of games to examine what they have in Ke’Bryan Hayes and Cole Tucker.
The clock also is ticking on Erik Gonzalez’s rehabilitation assignment; he could/ should be back next week, if not earlier.
Huntington emphasized a couple of times that the Pirates are going to do everything they can to win games until they’re officially eliminated from the playoffs, but that doesn’t exactly jibe with another statement he made.
“We’re working to build a quality foundation for next year,” Huntington said. “These young players and even some of our mid- level veteran players, they’re gaining experience.
“They’re learning what they can and can’t do. They’re learning how teams are pitching them and how they need to make adjustments. Every single game at the major league level is a learning experience as well as an opportunity to go out to compete to win.”
Outfield auditions
With Corey Dickerson now a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, the Pirates have an open outfield spot with which to work. What happens?
A couple of things, possibly.
One, look for Jose Osuna ( 7 home runs in 89 at- bats) to get more playing time. The Pirates also would like to give another shot to Pablo Reyes, 25, who was on their opening- day roster.
Reyes had an ankle injury earlier this season but has found his stroke of late, hitting .351 ( 20 for 57) with 5 home runs and 11 RBIs over his past 16 games at Class AAA. They even would like to take a longer look at Jason Martin.
“[ The Dickerson trade] gives us some opportunities to give some young players who are going to be or could be key parts of our 2020 and beyond clubs major league experience, major league exposure,” Huntington said.
Pitching problems
For the first month of the season, as Huntington pointed out, the Pirates had the best starting pitching in baseball. Once the water found its level, however, it wasn’t pretty.
The Pirates began the Thursday with the eighthhighest ERA in baseball ( 4.96). Meanwhile, their ace, Jameson Taillon, is in a weird holding pattern when it comes to his right elbow/ forearm, with another serious surgery possible.
Trevor Williams and Joe Musgrove have shown flashes, but even Huntington said Wednesday that “short- term results have not been what any of us are looking for” when it comes to those two and other members of the starting rotation.
The rest of the season should be the time to look for good news on Taillon, get enough out of Williams and Musgrove to feel good about their rotation spots next season and make a final determination on Chris Archer.
Per Spotrac, Archer has a $ 8.25 million option for next season, or the Pirates can buy him out for $ 1.75 million. Looking strictly at numbers, the buyout makes more sense. In 2017, one win above replacement cost about $ 10.5 million. Archer this season has given the Pirates 0.3, carrying a theoretical price tag of $ 3.15 million.
Furthermore, it’s hard to imagine the Pirates spending $ 8.25 million on much, let alone a pitcher who went 3- 8 with a 5.58 ERA the previous year, as Archer has done.
The problem is what the Pirates gave up to get Archer: Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow and Shane Baz. Buy Archer out, they literally have nothing to show for those prospects, and the deal looks even worse.
Best- case scenario is that Archer builds on what he did in his first start out of the break — his best in a Pirates uniform — and makes it a no- brainer for the Pirates to pick up his 2020 option.
“We still see the stuff out of Chris Archer,” Huntington said. “We’re going to get him right.”
Catching fever
The Pirates need more out of Elias Diaz and Jacob Stallings.
After a weird illness, Diaz opened his season strong enough and Stallings handles pitchers well. But the Pirates’ .610 combined OPS out of their catchers ranks last in the NL. The guys behind the plate have combined to hit .237 with four home runs and 29 RBIs — not good at all.
Sure, Francisco Cervelli’s concussion issues have thrown a wrench into their plans, but we’re talking more about next year than anything. Use the rest of this season to figure out what you have, if anything, behind the plate. Then put getting a catcher very high on your offseason shopping list.
“We will explore the trade and free- agent markets to see if there’s a way that we can improve our catching,” Huntington said.
Also problematic: Among the Pirates’ top 30 prospects according to MLB Pipeline, not one of them is a catcher.
Bell ringing
Another reason to pay attention to the rest of this season has nothing to do with young guys getting additional opportunities. Josh Bell was a legitimate MVP candidate for the first couple of months of this season. Lately, he has been a ghost.
Over his past 19 games, Bell is hitting .156 ( 10 for 64) with 0 home runs, four RBIs and 19 strikeouts.
The baseball season is long. Even the best players are going to encounter slumps.
But for a guy coming off a pretty bad season a year ago, Bell and the Pirates will want to see things pick up — not expecting the level Bell reached in May, but somewhere in the middle would work.
Keller question
Mitch Keller will return to the big leagues at some point this season. The question is when.
Manager Clint Hurdle said in the series in Cincinnati earlier this week that he did not envision a scenario where Keller came up for one or two starts — without some sort of assurance that he would be around a while.
From how Huntington made it sound, Hurdle might get overruled here, or there’s some sort of happy medium between the two ways of looking at this.
“Part of the [ Jordan] Lyles move and part of the Dickerson move is to clear a spot for [ Steven] Brault as he comes back or for Keller at some point here looking forward depending upon health and whether we go to a sixman rotation at some point in August,” Huntington said.
Regardless of the reason, the Pirates need to see what they have in Keller.