Here Comes the Calvary
Just hours after being swept by the San Francisco Giants, the Pittsburgh Pirates decided that, now 11 games under .500 (41-52) and 10.5 games back of both the Wild Card and the NL Central lead, it was time to pull the rip cord on bringing even more youth to the Major League level and announced the promotions of Endy Rodriguez and Liover Peguero.
The announcement that the organization’s 3rd and 7th ranked prospects were coming to town came a little more than 24 hours following the news that their 4th ranked prospect – and top pithing prospect – was riding in on his white horse as well.
Quinn Priester will make his Major League debut Monday night against the Cleveland Guardians, presumably pitching to Rodriguez, and with Nick Gonzalez and Henry Davis, and possibly Liover Peguero all standing somewhere behind him.
All of this means that the organization’s top five prospects at the AAA level or above have been promoted to the Major League level in the last 30 days.
Will this lead to more victories in the final 69 games for what’s been the worst team in the National League since starting 20-8?
Probably not.
But what’s the worst that could possibly happen? They lose more? And perhaps we get an early look at a lineup that we’ve been promised is capable of competing in 2024 and beyond?
If Rodriguez, Peguero, Gonzales, Davis, Jared Triolo, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Brian Reynolds, Jack Suwinski, the soon-to-be-returning Oneil Cruz – and the Mufasa to all of these Simbas, Andrew McCutchen – are to be the prescription to finally ending what will be an eight-year stretch of missing the postseason, there’s no better time to find out than now.
Glimpse of Steelers/Harris’s future?
With today’s deadline of 4pmET for NFL teams to finalize extensions with franchise players, reports continue to indicate that the only three players remaining in that predicament – the Giants’ Saquon Barkley, the Raiders’ Josh Jacobs, and the Cowboys’ Tony Pollard – are all at varying locales on the continuum of “If I don’t get a new deal, I will sit out.”
Pollard has yet to give any strong public indications that he won’t play on the tag. And the Cowboys’ aren’t very close to getting a deal done.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Jacobs, who’s been very clear he will not be showing up to play in Las Vegas if he isn’t given a new contract. The acrimony, or at the very least the lack of traction between he and the Raiders, has led some to speculate the only resolution now may be a trade.
In the middle of that somewhere is Barkley, who’s coming off of his first full season since his rookie year in 2018.
If Barkley is worth a long-term commitment at north of $12 million/year given he’s had just two productive, albeit highly productive, Pro Bowl-caliber seasons in his first five, what should we expect when the time comes for Najee Harris and the Steelers to have a similar conversation?
Short of falling on his face this year, Harris will have his fifth year option picked up by the Steelers next spring.
But what then?
What should Harris have to do to earn a contract extension from the Steelers in a league in which the running back position carries as little value as it does, especially if the offense is in the hands of what by then should be a quarterback paying off on his own first round pedigree?
Ohtani Market
It’s wild to consider that the greatest baseball player in nearly a century could be traded within the next two weeks, but here we are.
And the theory Eric Karros brought to the table Saturday on FOX’s MLB studio show had all the drama necessary of what could be a truly wild trade deadline if Ohtani is the crown jewel of the market.
Ohtani in San Francisco? And pushing the Dodgers to the brink of insanity down the stretch? Just because Arte Moreno wants to piss off his freeway rivals?
Who says baseball is boring?