It’s hardly difficult to discover a Pirates fan or even a casual observer who worries about Colin Moran’s defense at third base, the result of 14 errors in 2019 — only nine National League fielders at any position made more — and Moran faring poorly when it came to several more advanced statistics.
Derek Shelton does not appear to be overly concerned about what Moran does with the glove.
In fact, the Pirates manager said Monday on a Zoom call with local reporters that he has the utmost confidence in Moran holding his own at third base, which will be necessary considering he’s expected to get the bulk of the reps there.
“Colin’s worked really hard on his defense,” Shelton said.
“We’ve talked throughout the quarantine about working on our positioning and putting him in the right spot.
“I feel very confident that, when they hit the ball to Colin Moran, he’s going to catch it and throw it across the diamond. That’s what we want him to do.”
It goes without saying that the Pirates need Moran to improve.
Moran also needs Moran to improve if he wants to avoid designated-hitter duty and make life difficult for third-base prospect Ke’Bryan Hayes, who is not even in spring training 2.0 at the moment.
A couple of weeks ago, the theoretical Moran vs. Hayes battle at third generated something of a discussion point, as Shelton indicated that Moran was likely his guy to start, explaining that Hayes was not yet fully developed.
Perhaps that’s true, although it’s sort of a moot point considering Hayes has not yet worked out with the Pirates and likely will start the season in Altoona for more than just baseball reasons. (It also makes financial sense for the Pirates to stash him there.)
The Pirates also have a few different options for third base, guys such as Erik Gonzalez, JT Riddle and Phillip Evans, although none of them had contributed much offensively at the major league level.
Moran, who slashed .277/.322/.429 with a .751 OPS, 13 home runs and 80 RBIs in 2019, has at least done that. And he has done it while occupying a few different spots in the order.
“He and Josh Bell have hit in a group together,” Shelton said. “Josh has put on a display, and Colin’s put on a display. And that’s exciting to me, because he’s taking the things they’re working on in the cage, and they’re transitioning onto the field.”
It’s easy to be more optimistic about Moran’s bat than his glove, which helped produce a fielding percentage of just .938 in 2019. Moran also posted a next-to-last Defensive Runs Saved (per FanGraphs) mark of minus-13 and an Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) of minus-8.8 that also was second-worst across both leagues.
But that was then, under the former regime that often would fiddle around with Moran’s positioning. Moran has been working with the Pirates’ new group of analysts to figure out what works best for him and how to better anticipate where the ball might be hit — anything to add a little first-step quickness.
The one interesting thing about Moran in the field is that he throws the ball reasonably well. It’s more a lack of range and refined glove work that has hurt him in the past.
“We have a new staff, new faces, so just picking their brains on different things has been fun,” Moran said. “But just trying to be a consistent defender out there.
“Doing the little things that help you win the game, catching the ball, throwing it, getting a guy out, being consistent, being somebody that the pitchers rely on to get them outs when they make a good pitch.”
Moran’s backhand might be a big key. Because of the way baseball is played today, Moran has played off the line more than he ever has in his life, either in the hole between third and short or essentially as a shortstop. The byproduct was more plays to his right, which exposed a weakness.
“Growing up playing third base, you kind of don’t play so far over,” Moran said. “I’ve had to try and work on my backhand.”
Can Moran improve enough to be a functional third baseman? Only time will tell. Something that’s more of a sure bet is probably Moran’s bat, which is in an interesting place. Because of the Pirates’ limited amount of power — and the possibility that Moran might actually have some — it probably behooves Shelton to let Moran try to hit left-handed pitching, something previous manager Clint Hurdle rarely did.
A year after Moran hit just .177 and slugged .242 in 69 plate appearances against lefties, those numbers improved to .273 and .403 in 78 plate appearances in 2019.
Asked recently about Moran possibly hitting lefties more, Shelton defended the idea, saying essentially that he didn’t plan to platoon Moran.
“Now that we’re in a shorter season with 60 games, we’ll make sure that we play the leverage lineups that we feel are the best,” Shelton said. “I don’t think it’ll be something that we completely avoid him against left-handers.”
Which means that Moran will have to improve on a couple of things, such as his strikeout rate (23.3%) and the frequency with which he chased spin pitches on the inner-half of the strike zone.
The bigger issue remains defense and whether Moran can make enough strides to convince his critics that he’s an every-day player.
“Spectacular plays are stuff that make ‘SportsCenter’ and everybody talks about,” Shelton said. “But, making the routine play — he’s going to do that, and I have full confidence in it.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: July 14, 2020, 3:38 a.m.