Pirates destined to be below mediocre again
past 64 years.
The truth is somewhere in the middle.
The Pirates won’t be as good as Huntington thinks and they won’t be as bad as we think.
They’ll be somewhere below mediocre again.
I wanted the Pirates to keep Cole and McCutchen and add a pitcher and a third baseman through free agency because I thought they had a decent chance to compete. Silly me, right? It would have cost significant money to add to the roster. That’s not the way Nutting’s Pirates operate. They are the only team in baseball to not sign a major league free agent in the offseason. They much preferred to lose the combined salaries of Cole ($6.75 million) and McCutchen ($14.75 million).
But once Huntington made the trades, I wish he had continued the rebuilding (Sorry, Neal). Why not trade Jordy Mercer and Sean Rodriguez, who will become free agents after this season? Why not Harrison and Francisco Cervelli, who are making $10 million-plus this season? Why not Freese, who made it clear early in spring training that he would much rather be playing elsewhere? Sure, maybe this season would have been sacrificed. But look at it like one of PennDOT’s projects. Short-term pain for longterm gain.
Instead, the Pirates are trying to have it both ways. They cut pay roll and added younger players Colin Moran, Joe Musgrove, Michael Feliz and Kyle Crick in the trades, although Crick failed to make the roster out of spring training. They also kept enough older, more expensive players to make you thinkthey can compete. Indications are you aren’t buying it. I have detected zero buzz about the team with opening day Thursday in Detroit. There doesn’t even seem to be much demand for tickets forthe home opener Monday againstthe Minnesota Twins, even though Pittsburgh always has treated openingday as a big event. Earlier this week, there were about 9,000 tickets available. I see attendance dropping again after failing from 2.5 millionin the 98-win season in2015 to 2.25 million in 2016 to 1.9 million last season.
That doesn’t mean the Pirates won’t approach their mid-to-upper 70s win total from the past two seasons. I like where young starters Jameson Taillon, Trevor Williams and Chad Kuhl are headed. I like closer Felipe Rivero. I think the lineup has a chance to be pretty good. Josh Bell appears to be in the early stages of becoming a star, which means he’ll soon be making big money and almost certainly will be traded before he becomes a free agent after the 2022 season. I loved Huntington’s trade for Corey Dickerson.
But I don’t see the Pirates keeping your interest much beyond the start of Steelers training camp. Replacing Cole’s 33 starts and 203 innings won’t be easy. Ivan Nova’s drop-off in the second half last season is frightening. I’m not sold on the bullpen after Rivero. Cervelli and Gregory Polanco have to show they can stay healthy. Starling Marte has to play smarter baseball and hit a few more home runs. Moran has to provide some of the pop at third base that Jung Ho Kang did in 2016. The bench is ridiculously shallow. I see a 74-88 record. A long way below mediocre, now that I think about it.