What to do with Skenes, Davis...
Besides the health of Oneil Cruz — will his immense physical skills remain intact after his gruesome leg injury? — the biggest story in Bradenton is this: What are the Pirates going to do with their No. 1 overall draft picks?
I wish I could say that pitcher Paul Skenes and catcher/right fielder/who-knows-what Henry
Davis will start the year here and we’ll all live happily ever after, but that appears to be a long shot. And you know as well as I do that the Pirates never, ever deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Indeed, even if Skenes strikes out every batter this spring, and Davis hits 10 home runs, it seems unlikely that both would head north with the club. Maybe one would. Maybe neither would.
The Pirates can save future costs by keeping Skenes down for a bit. That’s pretty much all you need to know. It’s also possible he’ll need some seasoning. But can you imagine the outcry if he shreds hitters this spring and doesn’t start in Pittsburgh?
If you’re serious about winning, you take your best team north, no matter the financial ramifications.
Skenes is widely considered the best pitching prospect since Stephen Strasburg, who needed all of 11 minor league games before he debuted at age 21 for the Washington Nationals. Skenes, 21, already has five minor league games under his belt.
This is what ex-MLB executive
Jim Bowden wrote about Skenes last month in The Athletic: “The Pirates are expected to take it slow with him, which is the right thing to do, but Skenes is so talented that I won’t be surprised if he makes it to the big leagues as early as this September.”
September? That sounds pretty late to me. What if the Pirates are hovering around playoff contention in June — not hard to do in a league where 40% of the teams make the playoffs and around 70% come close — and Skenes is flourishing in Triple-A? Gerrit Cole arrived in June. I have to imagine Skenes would by then, too. He
better, unless he struggles badly.
As for Davis, the Pirates seem bent on developing him as a catcher. I mean, he is a catcher (I think), but if they were so determined to find out if he can play the position in the big leagues, why didn’t they audition him in a bunch of their meaningless late-season games last summer?
It’s possible a hand injury played in a role, but why didn’t the Pirates just say so? Instead, we kept hearing Davis was going to catch some games. I think he caught two innings.
The team sustained a crushing blow during the offseason when presumptive No. 1 catcher Endy Rodriguez was lost for the year with an arm injury.
But he’s only 23, so that job will be his again next season, one would assume, unless Davis takes over and flourishes.
The talk early in spring training is that 35-year-old Yasmani Grandal is the only catcher on the roster guaranteed a spot.
“Grandal’s gonna catch,” manager Derek Shelton told reporters Thursday. “Then in that second spot, we’re gonna have a competition.”
OK, so I guess we’ll see if the No. 1 overall pick can beat out Ali Sanchez and Jason Delay? If not, does he go to Triple-A to learn the catching trade at age 24 (he turns 25 this season)?
I’m more interested in the bat. I get it — the Pirates drafted this kid where they did partly because he plays a premium position (allegedly), but you always draft bat-first when you’re picking that high.
My feeling was: have Davis spend the offseason learning how to play right field and let him focus on that and hitting and forget the intricacies and enormous physical and mental demands of catching.
If Davis hits, he can leave his glove in the car. Nobody will remember that he was drafted as a catcher. Nobody will care. Neil Walker was drafted as a catcher. Nobody cared or remembered when when he became a good, power-hitting second baseman (after playing third base in the minors) for winning teams.
Just hit, baby.