Pirates believe developing hitters can support a solid pitching staff
The Pirates have not added much of significance this offseason. They have not spent much money nor trade capital. So the question is, if they believe this is the best team they can put on the field, can the offense avoid wasting what could be a strong pitching staff?
“We have a strength in place that’s real, that’s tangible and that has experience and growing experience,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “However, at the same time, there’s games that got away from us last year when we needed to score more runs.”
Second-half surges from Jameson Taillon and Trevor Williams, along with a strong September from newly acquired Chris Archer, led the Pirates rotation to a 3.48 ERA
after the All-Star break. That ranked fifth in the National League. But they scored 267 runs during that time, 10th in the NL, the same place they finished for the season. Can the offense as presently constituted close the gap?
The Pirates declined Josh Harrison’s option and lost Jordy Mercer in free agency, then brought back Jung Ho Kang and signed Lonnie Chisenhall for a combined $5.75 million. Other than that, the lineup should largely resemble the 2018 team, which was 82-79, fourth in the NL Central Division.
The payroll currently is between $71 million and $73 million, $18 million or more below where they finished last season. At PiratesFest, general manager Neal Huntington responded to fans’ questions about the lack of spending by saying, among other things, that devoting a boatload of money to a free agent such as Manny Machado would consume a large percentage of payroll and make it hard to build a roster around him; free agency, he said, is “a losing game,” requiring teams to overpay to convince players to sign; spending in general, he said, doesn’t necessarily correlate to winning.
“We can be better offensively in eight of nine spots,” said Huntington, referring to catcher as the spot that produced. “We were league average offensively last year. Will we be better in eight of nine? That’s a big ask. But with Rick Eckstein and Jacob Cruz on board, we’re excited about where that group is going to go.”
Eckstein and Cruz are the new Pirates hitting coaches, and it seems as though the club prefers the potential improvements the new coaches could unlock, up and down the lineup, to acquiring more proven players. “Older players tend to get worse. Younger players tend to get better,” as Huntington put it. Older players also cost more than younger players. Put another way: They hope that hiring new hitting coaches will increase production across the board, rather than adding a new player — and more salary — at individual positions.
“The pitching platform accelerated and it seemed to have gotten to a place where we’ve been in that current, we’ve been in that lane,” Hurdle said. “Offensively, for some reason, we weren’t able to keep up, whether it’s player selection, whether it’s player development, whether it’s the coaching here, the combination of skills. So we felt it was just time to try and recalibrate our offensive philosophy and program.”
A large part of that program will be driving the ball, which is different from lifting it, Hurdle said. Bell, their 26-year-old first baseman, is a prime candidate for this. Last season, he struck out less, walked more, hit for a better average and got on base more often than in 2017, but his slugging percentage dropped 55 points as his home runs dipped from 26 to 12.
This winter, Bell worked out at Boras Corporation’s facility in Newport Beach, Calif., with Joe DeMarco, a former assistant coach at UC Irvine who works with hitters in Southern California. The idea was to retain the feel of what worked for Bell late last season, which wasn’t so much a change as a refusal to change.
“I think Josh got to the point where he committed to a couple core principles at the plate and stayed steadfast to them,” Hurdle said. “Basically I told him if he committed to them, he’d stay in the lineup. If he didn’t commit to [them], he’s coming out of the lineup. He got it.”
Bell hit .265/.390/.470 with four homers and five doubles in September.
“Just try to let the ball travel as best I can, and if there’s an off-speed pitch then I can think about balls at 320 [feet],” Bell said. “But for the most part, changeups away, fastballs away. That’s how people are going to attack me, so just doing damage with those pitches.”
Improvement from Colin Moran (11 home runs) and/ or Kang approaching his 2015-16 production at third base would help. Corey Dickerson hit .300 last year, Starling Marte had a 20/30 season and after returning to the majors for good, Adam Frazier hit .306/.357/.533 with seven home runs and 20 doubles.
“There’s power in Bell. There’s power in Kang. We believe there’s power in Moran,” Hurdle said. “We believe there’s power in Marte. We believe there’s power in Dickerson.
“I believe the home runs are going to come from the men we’ve already got internally, and I think it’ll be with tweaks and adjustments to their individual swings.”
The pitching deserves some run support. Taillon had a 3.20 ERA in 32 starts, leading the team with 191 innings. Introducing a slider midway through the season helped him end the year on a streak of 22 consecutive starts with three or fewer earned runs allowed.
“The biggest thing I thought went toward my success in the second half, for some reason it’s weird, but I feel like hitters can feel your confidence,” Taillon said.
Trevor Williams sandwiched a bad month in between exceptional performances and finished with a 3.11 ERA in 31 starts.
“He’s not the prototypical sexy pitcher,” Taillon said. “He doesn’t throw 98 [mph] with a hammer breaking ball, but he does a lot of things really, really well. He’s a student of the game, and he just doesn’t give up hard hits. He just doesn’t. His contact control is amazing. When he pitches, guys are just hitting weak dribblers all over the place, cursing themselves, breaking bats.”
Archer improved after gaining familiarity with Francisco Cervelli and pitching exclusively out of the stretch. Joe Musgrove pitched well when healthy but began and ended the year with injuries. He and Archer each had offseason abdominal surgeries but should be on track for spring training. The fifth spot will go to righty Jordan Lyles, who signed for $2.05 million in free agency and hopes to transfer his success in relief last year into a starting role.
“Just keeping that mindset of, three outs right now, it doesn’t matter the next three outs, the next six outs,” Lyles said. “That’s where I fell in trouble my first go-around as a starter, was trying to set up lineups, worrying about how I’m going to get them out a time or two down the road, which is not feasible.”
Add a bullpen anchored by Felipe Vazquez, Keone Kela, Kyle Crick and Richard Rodriguez, and the pitching staff projects to do its share. If the Pirates aren’t going to add to the offense, they have to hope the unit improves enough under the new instructors to pick up the slack.