PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – 17 games under .500 don’t expect the Pirates to turn to rookies or younger players immediately.
It’s not that the Pirates don’t understand their situation. They know as of Friday they are 17 games under .500 and already 13.5 games out of the division lead before Memorial Day. With two-thirds of the season still to play, how are they approaching this season?
“We believe we will play better and that is our entire focus,” said Pirates GM Ben Cherington on Thursday.
From the Pirates standpoint it’s more complex than just saying call up all the youth and cut all the veterans. The organization doesn’t want to say publicly they are already playing for next year. They don’t want quotes of giving up on the season two months before the trade deadline. They don’t want to put that out there publicly for their own players.
There is also what Cherington believes is important for free agents who signed this year and could sign in the future.
Cherington said you have to respect the job of a major league player by ‘providing enough runway to work through stuff and to get to where they have been in the past or get to where they are capable of’. There is no equation or sample size for the length of time this takes.
What that means is you are still going to see Tommy Pham in the lineup. The 37-year-old is batting .187 with a .263 on-base percentage and .483 OPS. We have seen more Alexander Canario, but Pham isn’t going to be discarded. There is a feeling doing this will negatively impact future free agents who might consider the Pirates.
Manager Don Kelly might go to another option at second base over Adam Frazier, it’s just there really aren’t any. In starting his rehab assignment at AAA, Nick Gonzales was hit on the hand with a pitch and hasn’t played since Sunday. Jared Triolo is another option at second base, but he is hitting .111 in his last 15 games.
“It’s a balance,” Cherington said. “I think that the game is not played in small samples. We all know that. It’s not an easy game to play. I really, really respect the job of a major league player and how challenging that is.”
“If you have someone in the organization who is beating the door down and telling everybody that absolutely they’re a better alternative, then of course you’re going to keep your eyes open to that.”
They did that with 1B/OF Nick Solak. He was batting .390 at AAA and a non-roster invitee. They called him up a week ago and he’s played three games, none since May 19. Matt Gorski came up for 15 games and hit .195 with two home runs and four RBI.
A bigger part of the problem is the lack of options in the minors. They aren’t hitting there either, and it’s not an opinion.
AAA Indianapolis (International League stats, out of 20 teams)
· 19th in home runs (36)
· 19th in runs scored (190)
· 19th in hits (349)
· 19th in OPS (.686)
AA Altoona (Eastern League stats, out of 12 teams)
· Last in home runs (23)
· 8th in runs (154)
· 5th in batting average (.228)
· 8th in OPS (.660)
Why you might want to see more youth in the lineup, but they also have to prove they are ready. These stats would tell you there aren’t options within the organization that can help this offense.
So, the Pirates keep plugging with the pieces they have, potentially for two more months before we see significant, or at least multiple, changes.
“We just got to get better,” Cherington said. “Let’s play better baseball. That’s going to lead to winning more games and let’s see where that takes us in July.”