Fresh brain trust rates talent
Pirates taking stock of players
Derek Shelton seems to understand the sentiment.
While other baseball teams this offseason have been spending money hand over fist, much to the delight of the MLBPA, the Pirates’ only two additions to their major league club been Luke Maile and Guillermo Heredia, neither of whom will make over the course of the entire season what Gerrit Cole is projected to pull down per start.
But while Shelton isn’t naive to that side of his team’s current issues, from his seat, the Pirates have ample work to do figuring out what they do have via actual evaluations and determining where it makes sense to add before actually putting pen to paper on any potential deals.
“Even though it probably seems quiet externally, there’s a lot of stuff going on internally with us having conversations about our club not only in 2020 but 2021 and moving forward,” Shelton said Wednesday night
following a Pirates CARE-avan event at Cool Springs in Bethel Park. Shelton, pitching coach Oscar Marin, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Yacksel Rios and Cody Ponce held a Q&A for a group of youth players and coaches.
A big part of the issue right now, Shelton would explain, is that the Pirates must evaluate things independently and judge players on how they produce for this regime, not the old one. That won’t happen during the offseason, nor will those projections be linear.
For example, Chris Archer could thrive while working with Marin. Perhaps Cole Tucker or Ke’Bryan Hayes can take a Kevin Newman-type of step forward this season, Mitch Keller does what Tyler Glasnow finally did in Tampa or Trevor Williams rediscovers his form from the second half of 2018.
Having a resuscitated Archer might allow them to ask for more, should they flip him for prospects at the 2020 trade deadline. It’s also logical that the situation could be worse than anybody thought, thus necessitating a few more serious trades and undergoing a more significant rebuild.
Bottom line, Shelton and the Pirates are progressing the way they are — sitting on the sidelines of free agency — because they’re trying to make sure their processes are sound and they’re doing the proper internal work before diving into the deep end of free agency.
Or doing much more than dipping their toes in the water.
“One of the things [general manager] Ben [Cherington] said when he took the job is that we were going to identify what we have,” Shelton said. “For us to do that, we have to take our time, and we have to see players on the field. We have to work off that.”
Is that the right approach? Only time will tell. If the Pirates can do what Shelton hopes and juice more production out of the players they do have, then it should turn down the volume (some, anyway) on those calls for owner Bob Nutting to spend more.
It’s also completely reasonable for fans to think that, on the heels of a 69-win season, more money must be spent if the Pirates want those plunking down their hard-earned money on tickets and merchandise to believe the club is doing its part to put a competitive product on the field — especially in a stacked NL Central.
It’ll be an interesting thing to see play out, that’s
for sure, although there’s only so much Shelton can do; he doesn’t have the authority to sign the best freeagent catcher available, an outfielder to guard against potential re-injury to Gregory Polanco’s shoulder or a starting pitcher to stabilize the rotation.
Shelton can only work with what he has. And, in this case, that means developing relationships with players and coaches on his staff, putting together a plan for spring training and finding other areas where the Pirates can improve, ones that a little more cost-effective.
“You don’t get in a lot of situations where it’s a new GM, a new manager, a new president, a big chunk of a new coaching staff,” Shelton said. “We’re making evaluations. Some of that is hard to do when you’re looking at a computer or you’re looking at a stat sheet and you’re talking about these guys. You have to trust the guys who have been here before.
“I think spring training is probably going to be more vital to us than it is a lot of clubs because when you have a new system in place and you have a new leadership group in place, we have to look at those guys and identify what our thoughts are on them.”
Shelton did offer his thoughts on a couple recent hires to his staff — bench coach Don Kelly and Marin — and he sounds extremely pleased with the work both of those guys have done thus far.
As for Marin, Shelton said Marin and Justin Meccage — formerly the assistant pitching coach, now the bullpen coach — have formed a great relationship and have already been working hands-on with some of the Pirates’ pitchers.
“There’s really not much not to like about [Marin],” Shelton said. “He’s passionate. He’s energetic. He’s very forward-thinking. He’s obviously a good learner. I like the fact that he and Justin have developed a relationship right of the bat, and they’re starting to talk. When I talk to pitchers after he’s talked to them, they say really positive things. That’s exciting.”
For a group that pitched to a 5.18 ERA in 2019, there’s obviously plenty of room for improvement. Archer and Williams are two veterans who will be looking to have bounce-back years, Archer by tapping into more of his natural athleticism and Williams by better repeating his delivery.
Shelton has been encouraged by what he’s heard out of that group so far.
“I think it’s a group that they expect themselves to be better than they were last year,” Shelton said. “That’s the main theme that I hear out of them when you talk to them. They said, ‘We want to get better. We want to grow. We want to learn.’ When you have the conversations that they’re having with Oscar and [Meccage], they’re talking about those things. It’s a good group.”
As for Kelly, he and Shelton talk multiple times a day and have legitimately become very good friends. Kelly said they’re always “ragging on each other about things,” and Shelton backed that up, admitting that he’s been busting Kelly’s chops some. “I have a tendency to do that,” he said.
But as far as how Kelly has taken to his new role, Shelton has been blown away. Already Kelly is initiating conversations with others and addressing issues before Shelton can even get to them. And instead of getting territorial, Shelton, like one of his best friends, Rocco Baldelli, did last year with the Twins, Shelton is thrilled to empower Kelly to do his thing.
“We hired [Kelly] based on conversations with people in the game,” Shelton said. “In the month or month and a half that he’s had the job, he’s even exceeded expectations.
“The most impressive thing is [Kelly] having conversations with coaches. I’ll call them, and they’re like, ‘I talked to Donnie yesterday about X, Y and Z. I’m like, ‘Wow, he’s already ahead of this.’ It’s a difficult thing to do. … He’s done an unbelievable job.”
It’s hard to find fans who question the moves made with president Travis Williams, Cherington, Shelton, Kelly, assistant general manager Steve Sanders, whomever. All are generally regarded as smart people. But it’s also the belief of most fans — and understandably so — that either they want to see some notable players signed or a declaration made that the Pirates are entering a rebuilding phase.
With PiratesFest this weekend and spring training only getting closer, it will be interesting to see if there’s clarity offered on either front.