The shortstop puzzle
Solving it is likely to be felt beyond starting lineup
BRADENTON, Fla. — The Pirates’ shortstop situation has the front office playing Tetris.
If Erik Gonzalez wins the job, does Kevin Newman get a bench spot? If Newman goes to the minors, what does that mean for Cole Tucker? Can Pablo Reyes be the backup? Would Jung Ho Kang return to shortstop?
With two weeks remaining before opening day, the situation lacks clarity.
Let’s start with the move the Pirates made to address the position this offseason, after the departure of Jordy Mercer in free agency. They acquired Gonzalez from the Cleveland Indians in exchange for Jordan Luplow and Max Moroff. The 27-yearold Gonzalez played in 81 games last season, starting 30 of them, and had a .676 onbase plus slugging percentage. Finding time to start in an infield that includes
Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez and Jason Kipnis is tough, but working with Lindor was helpful.
“[Lindor] said, ‘Hey, when you play shortstop you need to be ready for the routine ball, because sometimes you’re a little bit lazy and you make an error on the easy ground ball,’” Gonzalez said.
General manager Neal Huntington’s assessment of Gonzalez’s spring performance aligns somewhat with Lindor’s characterization.
“We’ve seen the range, we’ve seen the arm strength, we’ve seen the athleticism,” Huntington said. “Now we need to see the reliability. That’s going to be the next step in Erik Gonzalez becoming a quality defensive major league shortstop.”
Gonzalez is competing with Newman, the Pirates’ first-round pick in 2015 who debuted late last season. But here’s the thing. Prior to Thursday’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Gonzalez had three hits in 25 atbats with 11 strikeouts and Newman was 4 for 22 (then, of course, Newman went 3 for 4 with a double and a home run Thursday). Neither one is exactly running away with the job.
“After a day like today, it feels great because you know that competition is there,” Newman said after Thursday’s game. “To have a day like this, it feels great. But do I take a day like this day and think, ‘Oh, I’m good’? By no means.”
If Newman wins the job, Gonzalez will get a spot on the bench because he is out of minor league options and can also play second and third. But if Gonzalez wins the job, Newman might begin the season with Triple-A Indianapolis.
“If Newman wins the job, you got Gonzalez to come around. We like Gonzalez,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “If Gonzalez wins the job, I’m not so sure how Newman fits in if he’s going to be that guy.”
But if Newman begins the season in the minor leagues, he could cut into the playing time of Tucker, one of the Pirates’ top position player prospects. Tucker went 7 for 18 with four extra-base hits in spring before the Pirates sent him to minor-league camp, and he had a great showing in the Arizona Fall League.
“The offensive approach that he’s found, not just in the fall league, not just in spring training but in the second half of last season, it’s going to play,” Huntington said. “He’s driving the ball, he’s drawing his walks ... he can still steal bases, which is a weapon for him.”
Newman could work in at short and second with Tucker and Kevin Kramer if he began the season in the minors.
“You always want to understand what you hope to have coming,” Huntington said when asked how Tucker’s presence affected the Pirates’ offseason plans at shortstop. “The challenge is, it doesn’t always arrive when you want it to arrive, and sometimes it never arrives. … With Erik Gonzalez, we went out and got a young man we really like, a defensive shortstop. We think there’s some more bat in there. With Kevin Newman, we have another first-round pick that has been a top-100 prospect that, yes, struggled in his September call-up last year, but is going to be a solid major-league player. The fact that we have Cole next is a good sign for the organization.”
If Newman is not on the roster, the Pirates will need a backup shortstop, which could open the door for Reyes. Reyes is a versatile defender, and his ability to play both shortstop and center field, where the Pirates currently lack a true backup to Starling Marte, works in his favor.
“When I was in the Dominican, I played winter ball in different positions, too — center field, infield, left field, right field,” Reyes said. “And then when I came back here, they told me that I’m going to play different positions. I’m working hard every day, you know?”
Reyes celebrated his .293/.349/.483 campaign last September by going sailing with his wife in Punta Cana before winter ball. He played shortstop coming up through the minors, and last year he worked with Omar Moreno on outfield defense.
“I think that I can make it,” he said. “I’m not making this decision, but I’m working hard to stay here.”
And what about Kang, who played shortstop in 2015 when he joined the Pirates? He’s fitter than the Pirates have seen him, moving well at third base, and all four of his hits this spring are home runs.
“Currently just doing third base, so what do you think about shortstop?” Kang said through interpreter Jeffrey Kim. Kang added in English, “What do you think?”
Told that the implication was that he’d prefer to stay at third, he said, “If you stay as a shortstop, that’s going to be no problem at all. But if you’re staying at third base and then you’re back and forth [between] shortstop and third base, it’s kind of hard to go back to shortstop from third base.”
Kang re-signed with the Pirates for $3 million and made it clear that he wanted to beat out Colin Moran for the everyday third-base job. So far, the Pirates are honoring that.
“We’re working to see which one of these four guys is going to take that shortstop job, which one of these four guys is going to take that third-base job,” Huntington said. “At some point we’ll have an appropriate conversation with each of them about what an alternate position could be and might be. Certainly shortstop could be a consideration to talk about with Kang, but at the same time, we want to make sure that we give each of these guys the opportunity to go win the job that they’re competing for, which
is a regular.”