New Pirates ready to turn it around
BRADENTON, Fla. – Over the past five years, being a Pittsburgh Pirate meant watching the baseball world around you evolve at warp speed, a revolution spurred by technology and development altering the game in an almost unimaginable manner.
It meant greeting new teammates who spoke of their previous organizations as if they were faraway planets, with glowing details of helpful new-age statistics, high-tech devices and the personnel available to maximize performance.
And it meant bidding farewell to teammates who struggled in Pittsburgh but found new life elsewhere – be it Charlie Morton and Gerrit Cole in Houston, Tyler Glasnow or Austin Meadows with Tampa Bay – and wondering if they’d ever have such success stories of their own.
That time has not yet arrived. Yet with a top-to-bottom regime change in Pittsburgh, a culture that players describe as uncreative and overly rigid – even militant – has given way to embracing progressive development and a player-driven atmosphere aimed at maximizing performance.
Out are team president Frank Coonelly, general manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle, a trio who helped snap a 20-year drought of losing seasons and earn three consecutive playoff berths from 2013 to 2015, only to see things spiral as the industry moved forward around them.
In are new club president Travis Williams, GM Ben Cherington and firsttime manager Derek Shelton, who in stops with Tampa Bay and Minnesota saw firsthand how mid-market clubs can develop championship-caliber teams.
For a core group that suffered through a tumultuous and embarrassing 93-loss season in 2019, the fresh blood in the front office and fresh air in the clubhouse so far feels like a perfect balm.
“There’s no eyewash, there’s no showing up to meetings that don’t really matter,” All-Star first baseman Josh Bell said. “It’s easy to come in, shake hands and ball. It’s an experience that’s new on both sides, the front office and us. But we’re both embracing it.”
Particularly after a season that went from unremarkable – 44-45 at the AllStar break – to terrible to toxic in a hurry.
The Pirates lost 23 of their first 27 games to start the second half. In September, they endured a nine-game losing streak during which they were outscored 87-26. In between, the clubhouse crumbled under Hurdle, the low point perhaps when reliever Keone Kela was suspended for two games for a reported altercation with a member of the coaching staff.
“I think everyone is just excited to be done with 2019,” says starter Trevor Williams. “We are excited to reprove ourselves, not only to coaches that don’t really know us, but to a league that can see us kind of a laughingstock last year, with everything that was going on on and off the field.”
Cherington passed on chances to interview for a handful of general manager openings since the Red Sox nudged him aside during the 2015 season. In Pittsburgh, he works for an owner, Bob Nutting, who has disillusioned a fan base tired of his tightfisted spending; as the Pirates tumbled in the standings, so, too, did their attendance – from 2.25 million in 2016 to 1.49 million last season.
Cherington was attracted to the job, he says, because the Pirates “really matter – to baseball, at large, and matter to Pittsburgh, for sure.”
He realizes Pittsburgh will never be Boston from a payroll standpoint but emerged confident after conversations with Nutting and Pirates team president Travis Williams that player development resources will be abundant.
“Look, it’s never going to look the same in Pittsburgh as it will in other markets, but you could say that about a lot of teams,” says Cherington. “I’m really confident the resources are here to do what we need to be excellent in baseball operations”
Including no cap on, say, a $5,000 camera to aid in a pitcher’s development?
“For sure.”
As Pirates pitchers throw live batting practice, a screen is set up behind the pitcher, shielding coaches, laptops and an Edgertronic camera from harm. The device used to break down a pitcher’s delivery to the most extreme degree is all over baseball now, along with its cousins Rapsodo and Trackman.
A GM’s tenure can’t always be traced to one transaction, but in Pittsburgh, the July 31, 2018, trade of Glasnow, Meadows and prospect Shane Baz to Tampa Bay for Chris Archer certainly accelerated Huntington’s demise. At the time, it looked like an aggressive and fan-friendly move: Meadows and Glasnow had stagnated in their development, and dealing them for Archer, a two-time All-Star, at a time Pittsburgh was just three games out of a wild-card spot was exciting.
A year and a half later, it looks like the kind of deal that sets back a small-market franchise for years.
Its most damning element is what Glasnow and Meadows became in Tampa Bay – and what they never were in Pittsburgh. Meadows hit 34 home runs in an All-Star campaign last year, while Glasnow – at 6-8 and armed with a devastating 98-mph fastball – posted a 1.78 ERA in 12 starts last season.
Bell remains good friends with Glasnow and is thrilled for his success. He’s more excited at the thought the Pirates might find a few more like him.
“It’s exciting to see,” Bell says of the club’s warmer embrace of technology and development, “because guys would come over from other organizations talking about it and we’re like, ‘Yeah, we have no idea. We’re just trying to hit spots.’ And then you see guys like Glasnow and Charlie Morton going to other organizations with those electronics and they’re finding themselves. They’re understanding what makes them the best version of themselves and that’s what the front office is trying to give us. “We’re all going to be so much better.” Glasnow’s uptick was almost immediate, shaving his WHIP from 1.45 in 34 2018 appearances in Pittsburgh to 1.10 in 12 starts with Tampa Bay to close that season. He credits his work with Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder for his turnaround, along with the information and atmosphere the organization provided.
“I’d never say anything bad about Pittsburgh,” says Glasnow. “I don’t want to sound like a (jerk), but (development) was more like an educated guess. They were more, I guess, cookie cutter. If it doesn’t work, do this and you don’t really have the freedom to do what you want. I want to be myself. That was harder there.
“It was pretty strict the entire time – it was very, like, militant. And that depends on what your cup of tea is. For me, I’d rather have a more relaxed atmosphere. There’s so much stress on you as a professional athlete, you don’t need to add any more.”
Says Williams, whose ERA rose from 3.11 in 2018 to 5.38 last year: “We are in an information age. It can be a detriment, but it also can be a huge help. I think all the tools are out in the open with us now, and in years prior I don’t think we utilized it as much as we could have.”
Eventually, getting lapped externally created significant friction internally.
Kela calls 2019 “one of the weirdest years of my life, for baseball,” but believes the fresh start afforded players – and the man tabbed to lead them – will redefine the clubhouse.
“It’s kind of good to cleanse the air not just for the staff but the players,” says Kela, “to take ownership and responsibility of the new opportunity given us.”
“It’s going to be a fun year, man,” Kela promises, “regardless of what people say and what things look like on paper. We’re a bunch of grown-ass men playing a kid’s game, and we all know what the expectations are.
“I think it’s cool that nobody is counting us in, because we have the opportunity to surprise people.”
Adds Bell, “I’m excited to see who the next guy is who figures it out and makes a name for himself. This time, for once, wearing the uniform of the Pittsburgh Pirates.”