This story was excerpted from Alex Stumpf’s Pirates Beat e-newsletter. To learn the total e-newsletter, click on right here. And subscribe to get it recurrently in your inbox.
The Pirates got here into this offseason figuring out they’d to enhance their offense, and the 2 positions that would use the most important enhance have been first base and nook outfield. First base has been taken care of with the acquisition of Spencer Horwitz, a younger participant with an excellent (albeit temporary) Main League monitor report that the workforce has coveted for a while.
The outfield? Properly, that’s the massive query that they might want to reply earlier than Spring Coaching will get underway.
The free agent market isn’t naked but, nevertheless it’s beginning to skinny. Michael Conforto and Max Kepler landed eight-figure one-year contracts. The Pirates have approached that territory without spending a dime brokers lately (Wealthy Hill signed for $8 million in 2022, and Carlos Santana received $6.75 million that very same offseason), however given the latest harm historical past of each gamers, it didn’t seem to be the Bucs have been prepared to make a run for them at that value.
There are nonetheless different free brokers available on the market, however they arrive with catches. Austin Hays was an All-Star in 2023 with the Orioles, however he outperformed his peripherals that season and fell to substitute degree in 2024. Randal Grichuk quietly had a robust season with the Diamondbacks (.876 OPS), however was principally used because the right-handed half of a platoon. Is that sufficient? Jesse Winker, Tommy Pham, Ramón Laureano. All are positive gamers, however do they transfer the needle sufficient when taking a look at this outfield in its entirety?
Oneil Cruz will man heart discipline, and whereas he has the instruments to excel at that place, he’s brief on expertise. The Pirates — and Cruz — are all-in on the change, however he’s inexperienced. Bryan Reynolds remains to be a nook outfielder, however bench coach Don Kelly has him on a program to play some first base too.
After them, it will get hazy. Jack Suwinski had a disappointing 2024 season, however he additionally had a 26-homer marketing campaign in 2023. You’ll be able to’t quit on him now, however what number of eggs can they put in that basket? Joshua Palacios struggled to remain on the sphere within the first half of final yr and wasn’t capable of construct off of his encouraging 2023 season. No. 22 prospect Billy Prepare dinner and No. 6 prospect Nick Yorke have promise however each are rookies, and Yorke’s expertise within the outfield is restricted. An outfield of Yorke and Cruz (two newly transformed infielders) and Reynolds (who had -12 fielding runs in 2024, based on Baseball Savant) runs the danger of being a defensive catastrophe.
That’s why including an outfielder is crucial. It’s one thing the workforce needs to do, and really seemingly will do. There’s all the time the commerce market, and the Pirates nonetheless have pitching prospects to deal from, in addition to Main League depth. They’ve three High 100 pitching prospects in Triple-A Indianapolis who needs to be prepared subsequent yr — No. 1 prospect Bubba Chandler, No. 4 prospect Braxton Ashcraft and No. 5 prospect Thomas Harrington — which supplies them some flexibility to dangle a Main League arm in a commerce. Groups additionally know they want way over simply 5 beginning pitchers over the course of a season, and after buying and selling Luis Ortiz for Horwitz, one other massive deal involving a starter may put them in an uncomfortable spot.
“Sooner or later, you’ve got to watch out,” common supervisor Ben Cherington stated on the Winter Conferences. “We wish to preserve [pitching] as a energy, and also you go too far, you begin to dig into it an excessive amount of, and hastily, you will get your self in hassle. So, we’ll should be considerate and cautious about it. Nonetheless really feel like that is an space of energy and depth. We’ll simply must see what comes.
“We’re nonetheless thinking about including to the workforce. We predict there will be lots of alternatives to do this.”
There’s nonetheless time for the Pirates to bolster their outfield combine — they signed Yasmani Grandal simply earlier than Spring Coaching and Michael A. Taylor in March, in any case — however they’re going to wish so as to add to the group. Transferring on from Bryan De La Cruz was a daring transfer, nevertheless it’s going to wish a countermove as nicely. Till there may be readability on who that third outfielder is, questions concerning the lineup and offense are going to persist.
