Tucker, Oliva will not join team just yet
CHICAGO – Cole Tucker arrived at spring training in a battle with Kevin Newman and Erik Gonzalez for the startingshortstop spot.
Jared Oliva was more of a long shot in the outfield, stuck behind Anthony Alford, Brian Goodwin and (eventually) Dustin Fowler, though Oliva remains one of Pittsburgh’stop 30 prospects.
Tucker and Oliva, however, have encountered a detour on their developmental path.
The Pirates on Saturday announced who will be at their alternate training site this April, but the most interesting part involved two guys who will remain in Florida, at Pirate City, for what manager Derek Shelton described as “skilldevelopment.”
“They were part of the discussion,” Shelton said of Tucker and Oliva. “We sat down and talked to them about what our thoughts were, laid out a plan, and they wereboth 100% on board with it. We figured Bradenton was a better place to get the actual skilldevelopment stuff done.”
As for which skills the Pirates want to develop in Tuckerand Oliva, or how they would like to see the two players improve, Shelton did not want to get into specifics. He did say that Tucker will remainat shortstop.
“Wewon’t talk about actual skillsor what we’re doing, like we don’t talk about anything mechanically,” Shelton said. “But there are things that we’ve identified that we want towork on.”
It was a rough spring for Tucker and Oliva. Tucker hit just .174 with six strikeouts in 24 plate appearances. Oliva was at .120 with 10 strikeouts in29 plate appearances.
The assignments are not permanent, Shelton added. Pittsburgh expects both players to work on those mystery skills, make it to Pittsburgh and be ready to go when the minor league season starts in May.
Crick close
The Pirates expect to have Kyle Crick back “fairly soon,” Shelton said. The righthanded reliever had been away from the team due to the birth of his child and has been completing the COVID-19 intakeprocess.
Sunday’s a possibility, Shelton said, adding that Crick will be ready to pitch immediately.
That’s notable because Crick’s return will force the Pirates to make a corresponding roster move. They could send Wil Crowe to the minors, although he’s their best/onlylong reliever.
Clay Holmes (no runs in his past 11 appearances) is out of options, the same for Duane Underwood Jr. and Michael Feliz. They would get crushed for sending David Bednar down. Of the group, Feliz has struggled the most dating to spring training (and before), pitching to a 5.68 ERA in seven Grapefruit Leagueoutings.
Fowler’s foul
Pirates Twitter lost it in the fourth inning of Thursday’s win, when Fowler failed to tag up and score on a Ke’Bryan Hayes fly out to left.
Shelton explained Saturday that Fowler thought he was supposed to go on contact, which was obviously wrong.
The only reasons Fowler might be going on contact there would be if there was two outs — there was one — or the ball was hit on the ground, and Pittsburgh thought Fowler could beat thethrow home.
Two coaches have since addressedthe play with Fowler.
“He just made a poor read,” Shelton said. “Fortunately, it didn’thurt us.”
Alternate site roster
As of now, these players will be at the alternate site:
Pitchers: Tyler Bashlor, Chase De Jong, Jandel Gustave, Geoff Hartlieb, Max Kranick,James Marvel, Nick Mears, Braeden Ogle, Sean Poppen, Edgar Santana, Chasen Shreve, Shea Spitzbarth, Blake Weiman, Steven Wright,Miguel Yajure Catchers: Jason Delay,
Joe Hudson, Christian Kelly, Andrew Susac
Infielders: Ji-Hwan Bae, Rodolfo Castro, Will Craig, Oneil Cruz, Wilmer Difo, Todd Frazier, Connor Kaiser
Outfielders: Brian Goodwin, Hunter Owen, Chris Sharpe, Troy Stokes Jr., Travis Swaggerty
Esposito returns
Brian Esposito, the Class AAA Indianapolis manager who supervised the Pirates alternate training site in Altoona last summer, will reprise his role in April around Pittsburgh, Shelton said.
Esposito will be assisted by Joel Hanrahan, Indianapolis’ pitching coach; Class AA hitting coach David Newhan; and Gary Greene, an infield instructor in the organization and