BRADENTON, Fla. — The players working out at the Pirates’ alternate site in April should get plenty familiar with Pittsburgh traffic.
In fact, it would probably be inaccurate to call it one singular site, as the Pirates announced plans Monday to occupy a couple different prominent parts of the city.
All told, it should be a much different experience than what those players did in Altoona last year for the entire summer, readying themselves with intrasquad games and practice work due to a lack of minor league season.
So, here goes …
Home base for these players will be Heinz Field, which will function as their clubhouse.
On days the Pirates are not at home, the group will then either work out at PNC Park or play alternate training site teams in Columbus, Ohio, or Louisville.
When the Pirates are playing games at PNC Park, those players will have workouts at Charles L. Cost Field on Pitt’s campus. There will be no alternate training site games happening in Pittsburgh.
“The Pirates organization is extremely grateful to both the Pittsburgh Steelers and the University of Pittsburgh for allowing our players and staff to use their first-class facilities during the first month of the season,” general manager Ben Cherington said in a statement. “It is a great example of the unique bond each of the professional teams and Pitt share with each other and part of what makes Pittsburgh such a special place.”
An alternate training site became necessary after the start of the Class AAA season was pushed back into early May. It was originally expected to begin at the beginning of April, in conjunction with the MLB regular season.
The Pirates will keep some of their top reserves with the alternate training site, ensuring they're ready in case the major league team incurs injuries or a COVID-19 outbreak.
Those players have not yet been announced, although it’s expected to happen soon once their MLB roster is finalized, along with the five-player taxi squad.
This was done exclusively at Altoona last summer, where Class AAA Indianapolis manager Brian Esposito oversaw the group, those players focusing on individual skill work and playing as many intrasquad innings as their pitching would allow.
Speaking on a Zoom call after Monday’s spring training game, Cherington said the Pirates expect to announce the coaching staff who will oversee the alternate site program in the coming days.
“Not knowing if the alternate site is going to extend past April, if we could, we wanted to keep it in Pittsburgh,” Cherington said, explaining the site a little more. “We wanted to keep those players as close to our team as possible and give them the experience of being in Pittsburgh — working out in Pittsburgh and being around that environment.”
The other thing Cherington said the Pirates did not want to do was disrupt how Altoona prepared for its season. The same as Class AAA, the Class AA season (along with both levels of Class A) is expected to start in early May.
“If they're hosting us again in April, then it makes it really hard for them to be ready for their season,” Cherington said. “So a bunch of that stuff came together.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: March 29, 2021, 4:02 p.m.