PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – The plan seems to be coming together for the Pirates to rebuild into at least a playoff contender in 2024. Upon arriving GM Ben Cherington has torn it down, got rid of almost all of the older players allowing the youth a chance to grow. They won 14 more games in 2023 than a year ago and beat a number of playoff teams down the stretch. Now will they be a spender in free agency to improve the team going forward?
“We have the resources we need to get better and to compete and contend,” Cherington said careful not to make any promises about spending dollars or committing to making a splash in free agency. “I’m confident in that. It’s not going to be a single avenue.”
The Pirates GM then said that internal improvement for them is always going to be a critical part of the team getting better. He said they have lots of young players. They were the youngest team in baseball by a full year or more and he believes seeing what he saw against good teams, even more growth can happen. And Cherington said they have more younger players who can make an impact.
But they still need some help from the outside.
“We’ll be in a position to add to the team, whatever the avenues are,” Cherington said Tuesday. “It’s not going to be a single avenue, whether it’s trades, free agency, waivers, Rule 5. We shouldn’t be overlooking any potential avenue, but confident that we have the resources we need to make the team better this offseason.”
He’s said he doesn’t feel like he has the desired 10 pitchers that can win Major League games going into next year’s rotation. That means they will need to add pitching to the group.
“I think we want to be really open-minded to how we can improve our starting pitching group between now and spring training,” Cherington said. “Whether that’s external additions. Whether that’s continued growth from guys who are already here or just return to health. I think if we do our jobs well enough, we can get to that point in February to feel like we can say we have 10.”
“We’re not there right now. What could that look like in terms of the external additions? Again, we need to get deeper into our planning to figure out exactly the targets that make sense for us.”
The talk from Cherington has changed from previous years in terms of being more aggressive now. He said they are to the point where they can trade prospects to get MLB players instead of the sell-offs for minor leaguers we saw in recent seasons. Are they aggressive enough to get that next level free agent? Instead of just a Rich Hill or Vince Velasquez, would the Pirates and their GM look at more expensive options?
When the Pirates took the next step to be a playoff team, a relatively large free agent signing really helped them turn the corner. Beating out other teams on starter Francisco Liriano for three-years $39 million paid huge dividends. Even though the lefty was coming off a 5.31 ERA the year prior, he was 29-years-old and had a couple of huge seasons previously with the Twins. They may have rolled the dice a bit on Liriano, but he would win 35 games in three years with a sub-3.30 ERA.
Coming off the most wins under Cherington, by a landslide, and having MLB basement low payrolls over that time, maybe the mindset has changed when it comes to spending money.
“It’s a different point in time,” Cherington said. “I think that means we can be open to maybe a different type of target. We’ll just have to see. Again, don’t want to lean on free agency exclusively as the answer to all of the things we want to do. I think we need to cast a wide net.”
A lot of what has come in previous nets has been tossed back in the ocean. Will this be an offseason where they catch that trophy? Cherington said free agents are very interested in Pittsburgh because of the team, staff, ballpark, city. The players did their part in the second half of the season to show they are close.
How will management respond?