Pirates Finally Taking Steps in the Right Direction

The 2020 Pirates were the worst team in baseball, and the 2021 outlook is even more bleak. But I’m not nearly as bummed about that this year as I’ve been in years' past. Finally, having the guts to undergo a true rebuild is the only way this team gets back to having a chance to win -- which is still actually possible in a small market, as we just witnessed with the Tampa Bay Rays being one very poor managerial decision away from winning the World Series.

Make no bones about it: the current major league roster is bad. Also, the farm system isn’t as eye-catching as it once was with the likes of Taillon, Cole and Glasnow progressing in the system. But the rebuild has kicked into high gear, and I’m optimistic to see whether Cherington’s moves will turn out to be more successful than Neal Huntington’s. He doesn’t have a high bar to top.

The recent trades of Taillon and Joe Musgrove netted the farm system nine additional players. When you factor in the Josh Bell trade to the Nationals in December, the Pirates have added 11 legitimate prospects to their system before the first pitch of the season is even thrown. None of them are dynamite, guaranteed-to-succeed players. But all of them are interesting enough that it made sense to move both of the starting pitchers, neither of whom would have been in Pittsburgh the next time the Pirates had a chance at playoff contention. The same goes for Bell, who netted a smaller return, which is better than seeing him eventually walk away in free agency for nothing.

The trades shouldn’t stop there, despite Cherington saying the main focus is to add some minor pieces, such as a veteran starting pitcher to the team for 2021. I’m sure at the trade deadline, players like Kyle Crick, Adam Frazier, Gregory Polanco, and Richard Rodriguez will be dangled, and ideally no longer be in Pittsburgh shortly thereafter. That will only help to repair the future hopes, which includes the first overall pick in the 2021 draft and is likely to include a very early selection in 2022 as well.

 

If that draft selection this coming summer isn’t Kumar Rocker, it should immediately add skepticism to everything else Cherington has done. Assuming he will be developed better in the Pirates’ system than the top pick from a decade earlier - a certain financially well-off pitcher who Taillon just joined in the Bronx, Rocker could be the ace on the next postseason Pirates team. Even without a season in 2020, Rocker’s performance in 2019 was brilliant, culminating in a College World Series victory for Vanderbilt where he was named Most Outstanding Player. The run included a 19-strikeout no-hitter!

Here’s to hoping at least a few of the 11 players acquired in those trades will join him there. Hudson Head and Cannan Smith could easily be two of the outfielders behind whichever pitcher is on the mound. Smith was the Yankees’ No. 21 prospect and was rated by Baseball America as the top breakout prospect to watch entering 2021, as well as the best hitter for average and strike zone discipline in the entire Bronx Bombers’ system. Head enters the Pirates’ system as the No. 6 prospect, and has five-tool center field potential. 

While it’ll be a few years until we see those guys compete in the show, pitchers Miguel Yajure and David Bednar should compete for major league innings in 2021. Bednar, coming from San Diego, is a feel-good story - as the Pittsburgh native returns to his hometown. Yajure pitched seven innings out of the bullpen in 2020 for the Yankees but hadn’t pitched above A ball prior to that, so he could head back to the minor leagues for further development.

He should be higher up on the ladder than some of the other low-level, lottery ticket pitching prospects acquired in the deals. Roansy Contreras and Omar Cruz haven’t pitched above the Class A level and Drake Fellows has yet to pitch in a professional game because of the 2020 minor league season cancellation. They will be among the first to show just how different the Cherington regime will be in terms of developing pitching.

That leaves two players that I haven’t touched on: Maikol Escotto was used as an infield utility man for the Yankees’ Dominican team in 2019 and Endy Rodriguez, the Pirates’ acquisition from the Mets’ involvement in the Musgrove deal. Rodriguez will hope to develop into the catcher of the future the Bucs have been endlessly chasing. Sticking to one position is likely to help both players’ development.

Yet another positive in how the rebuild is going so far - all of these players seem promising, and that doesn’t even include the myriad of intriguing guys who were already in the farm system before the calendar year flipped to 2021. It’s easy to be skeptical about the way the Pirates have run things up to this point, but it’s also easy to be optimistic about what is yet to come because it feels like Cherington has finally found the Pirates an actual direction.

And if you’re looking for one more good thing about the rebuild, it’s likely that not many, if any, will be able to sit at PNC Park and be subjected to seeing the roughest days of this rebuild that soon take place in a few months.