PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – After trading a third member of what were at one point thought of as building blocks to their team on Sunday, Pirates GM Ben Cherington said while the phone is still on for other moves, they likely will be in the process of adding players.
“After this one we are probably shifting some energy at this point now into adding to the team between now and the season,” Cherington said.
That could be in free agency or trade, but they only have a couple of months before the season starts and weeks until Spring Training.
“There will be a consideration to add back some Major League starting pitching experience,” Cherington said Sunday. “Some body or multiples who have figured out how to do that at a Major League level and can be a source of stability hopefully.”
Right now their starting rotation consists of Mitch Keller (16 MLB starts), Steven Brault (45 MLB starts) and Chad Kuhl (70 MLB starts). None of those in the rotation to start the 2019 season.
Quick moves
Is Cherington surprised that they have moved these pieces relatively quickly—Josh Bell, Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon all traded in the span of a month.
“We really didn’t know,” Cherington said. “We just wanted to be prepared to act if the opportunities came our way.”
The Bucs general manager said there wasn’t a moment where they realized they needed to blow it up (my words) but after seeing the performance on the field, 19-41 in a shortened 2020. He knew they had to change direction.
“It was more clear to us to really get to where we want to go, we just need lots more players and lots more opportunities,” Cherington said. “They are not all going to turn out. Not all the players in the minor-league system before these trades are going to turn out.”
“We just need lots of them. We have to really pour into development. Especially in deals like this, the acquisition is one-half of it. The development just as important, we have to pour into that now.”
Non-believers
While it seems logical what Cherington and his team are doing, there are a lot of skeptics. More so with the ownership situation than baseball ops, but does he pay attention to what is said or tweeted?
“Yes we care,” Cherington said. “We want to be trusted to make decisions and lead and build a great team here.”
“We do care. We have to weight that externally with what we feel is best for the Pirates in the long run. Do the best we can to do that.”
“These things are hard. They are always going to be hard when it involves a player who is well liked and has performed well at the Major League level as Jamo has.”
It was a franchise going nowhere with the previous core of players. Cherington is committed to building a new core of players, most of which are years from the majors. Have they made the right decisions? Time will tell.
So a fan base that has seen three playoff seasons in 29 years is asked again to be patient.