LOS ANGELES — It’s neither perfect nor complete, but the Pirates’ youth movement has seemingly started.
In the middle of a full-scale rebuild where legitimate progress probably still won’t fully show its face for at least another year, it has become a familiar refrain echoed by much of the fan base: play the kids.
For those on the inside, they view it as a vote of confidence, evidence the Pirates value their young players and are willing to trust them with major league reps. When it comes to those in charge, handing over responsibility to younger players isn’t just something that happens.
The Pirates, like most professional sports teams, have been intentional about matching what they do in the major and minor leagues to ease these transitions. They’ve also constructed a coaching staff that isn’t light on experience when it comes to baseball’s training ground.
The end result, the Pirates certainly hope, is an environment where learning and teaching are still taking place with the major league club, players who are potentially part of the franchise’s future permitted to take the car without fear that they’ll knock over a mailbox or two along the way.
“Not only do we have young players who are coming to the big leagues and learning, but we also have young players who missed an entire season,” manager Derek Shelton said, referencing COVID-19 canceling the 2020 minor league campaign. “There are parts of their development that were missed. We have to continue to teach. There’s probably more teaching and learning going on at the major league level here than most places in the big leagues right now.”
One of the areas where that has been evident has been on defense, where the Pirates made the fewest errors and were one of baseball’s top defensive clubs in 2021.
Gone from that group is Jacob Stallings. Ditto for his replacement, fellow Gold Glove winner Roberto Perez. Kevin Newman, who had a .993 fielding percentage and committed just three errors in 132 games last season, is on the 60-day injured list after incurring groin and hamstring issues.
A year after making the fewest errors in the National League (70) and tying for MLB’s best fielding percentage (.988), the Pirates have tumbled to 29th and tied for last in those categories at 39 and .978, respectively.
Ke’Bryan Hayes, oddly enough, leads the group with seven errors, followed by Newman, Josh VanMeter and Rodolfo Castro at four apiece. JT Brubaker has made three, while Michael Chavis, Andrew Knapp and Cole Tucker (since designated for assignment) are the others with multiple errors on the season.
“We need to be more consistent, and I think what we're seeing is young players learning the major league game and the speed of the big league game,” Shelton said. “It's definitely something we're talking about and working on. We have to get better."
Castro provides the perfect example for what Shelton is talking about — not so much VanMeter, Knapp or Tucker. The 23-year-old Dominican is athletic and plays with energy. He’s more comfortable at second and third base than shortstop, which is where he’s primarily played with the Pirates this season thanks to Newman’s injuries.
There have been a few times when Castro’s age has shown — communication with Chavis on a pop fly in Chicago, making the final out of an inning at third base, routine fielding plays that he’ll probably make in his sleep in a few years.
The Pirates can live with the miscues now because they don’t stem from lack of effort. Furthermore, the best thing for Pittsburgh to do right now is skew younger and live with the byproduct of that, whether that involves mistakes veterans might not make, slumps or ongoing instruction.
“It’s really exciting, especially to see these other guys here, knowing that we lived together and came up together a little bit,” Jack Suwinski said. “It’s good to see some familiar faces. I know we’re all excited to see each other, be a part of this team and do what we can to help the Pirates win.”
And sometimes, you even find some pretty good results.
Suwinski has 34 total bases since his MLB debut on April 26, which is second-most among National League rookies, and his five homers pace that pack. Suwinski and Diego Castillo were tied for the second-most extra-base hits among National League rookies entering Wednesday with eight.
With Oneil Cruz, Mason Martin, Travis Swaggerty and others surely on the way, what the Pirates have done youth-wise has been encouraging. It’s also fun to see that there’s more to come.
“It’s reassuring,” Cal Mitchell said. “It tells me that they still value their homegrown guys and are working really hard to get us to be the best players that we can so we can impact this team.
“It feels great that they seem like they’re trending that way, to give talented younger ballplayers a chance.”
This season so far has been marked by the Pirates punching above their weight and also enjoying a series of firsts.
MLB debuts for Suwinski, Castillo, Mitchell, Cam Alldred, Yerry De Los Santos and Beau Sulser.
Tucupita Marcano collected his first two homers in the Dodgers series. Mitchell had hits in his first four games and has hardly looked out of place. Roansy Contreras and Miguel Yajure have each earned the first wins of their career.
“We’re gonna have a lot of [firsts] because we’re gonna run prospects and players from our system through here,” Shelton said. “It never gets old. To watch [Marcano] hit his first homer, to see guys get their first hits, it never gets old.
“Those are cool moments, and we need to relish those.”
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: June 2, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: June 2, 2022, 11:25 a.m.
