Manager open to 4 outfielders
Alignment gaining popularity in MLB
SARASOTA, Fla. — Get ready: The four-outfielder alignment, a radical shifting trend that has been growing across Major League Baseball, is coming to Pittsburgh.
While the former regime was not in favor of doing this, new Pirates manager Derek Shelton is very much in favor of it — and said as much Thursday after his team’s 13-0 loss to the Orioles at Ed Smith Stadium.
“You’re just covering more ground,” Shelton said. “We’re not going to do it just to do it. It’s not going to be something that we’re doing as a sideshow. We’re going to do it when there’s a purpose to it and we feel it’s our best matchup.
“It’s going to depend on the pitcher. It’s going to depend on how the guy’s swinging the bat. It’s going to depend on where we’re at in the game. There are a lot of factors that play into it.”
According to Baseball Info Solutions, 101 balls in
play in 2019 were hit into a four-outfielder alignment, up from 37 the year before. In 2017, that number was one. In 2016, zero.
The idea has become more popular, as baseball has become a game of three true outcomes: home runs, strikeouts and walks.
As Shelton said, the idea is to do it against power guys who swing hard, the type of hitters who aren’t interested in settling for a ground ball the other way.
For the Pirates, this will likely mean flexing Adam Frazier to the outfield. Frazier has played 137 games in the outfield during his major league career, including 86 starts, although he played entirely at second base in 2019.
“We’ll use it at some point, depending on the matchup,” Shelton said. “We have the functionality to do it with who our infielders are because Frazier can go out there and do it.”
In a way, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Shelton worked under Joe Maddon, who used it against sluggers such as Jim Thome, Travis Hafner and David Ortiz during his time with the Tampa Bay Rays. Shelton was a hitting coach under Maddon there. Shelton was a bench coach in Minnesota when the Twins occasionally employed a four-man outfield.
The four-man outfield in baseball isn’t new. It actually dates back to the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, against hitters such as Stan Musial, Willie McCovey, Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew and Jim Rice. Mark McGwire faced it occasionally in 1999.
Baseball has changed plenty since then, but in doing this, Shelton is showing a refreshing ability to adapt and also to try something a little different to try and gain any advantage he can.
“It definitely has some functionality,” Shelton said. “With advanced shifts now, you even see the second baseman so far out at times it looks like there’s a guy standing out there.
“The fact that we can prove where guys hit the ball, and we have information on that, if we don’t use it in certain situations, it would probably be a detriment to us.”
Noesi flashes personality
After Jarrod Dyson was strikingly honest when answering a question about why he signed with the Pirates, saying there simply wasn’t a lot out there, Hector Noesi offered a similar reason for why he signed a minor-league deal with the club.
“The opportunity,” Noesi said of his biggest reason. “Right now, I’m 33 years old. You see every team has a lot of young players. I gotta go where the opportunity is. Because I won’t fit in the Yankees or
Houston or those teams. Right?”
Give Noesi credit for telling the truth. We’re talking about a guy who went 0-3 with an 8.46 ERA in 12 games with the Marlins last season, so no, there probably wasn’t a huge market for his services.
But he’s also going at this with the right attitude.
He said he’s ready to start, pitch out of the bullpen or whatever the Pirates need in order to earn a job.
“I’m available even to play first base,” Noesi joked. “If they want me in the bullpen, I’ll go over there. I’m trying to do my job. The only thing I need is the opportunity. That’s it.”
Dyson, Polanco to play
Shelton said Dyson will see his first game in center field on Friday at LECOM Park against the Orioles. That game will also feature Gregory Polanco in right field.