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The Pirates’ Tucupita Marcano hits against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022, at PNC Park on the North Shore.
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Analysis: Pirates must supplement young players now to set rebuild on track

Post-Gazette

Analysis: Pirates must supplement young players now to set rebuild on track

The Pirates’ 2022 season, as far as wins and losses, was lost a few months ago.

As far as development, there was still value to be had. The Pirates called up myriad rookies who did gain experience in the majors, testing their mettle against the best in baseball, learning lessons along the way, growing slowly but surely.

And to an extent, one can already imagine the value that had. Oneil Cruz seemed to work his way through a rough patch and figure some things out. By the end of the season, he was getting on base more frequently, striking out a little less, walking a little more. He remains the closest thing the Pirates have on their active roster to an elite star, even if he isn’t a finished product.

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Rodolfo Castro had his gaffes, but he ended the season as a regular in the top half of the lineup and strung together some truly impressive games. Jack Suwinski, Ji Hwan Bae, Cal Mitchell, Tucupita Marcano and Diego Castillo showed flashes, with more time likely needed. Roansy Contreras, Luis Ortiz and Johan Oviedo are among the youngsters in the rotation who showed promise at one time or another, to varying degrees.

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But two things can be true. Those performances from rookies or second-year players getting their first real run of games can be promising, and one can also acknowledge that it might not be enough.

Manager Derek Shelton, multiple times while recapping the season, pointed to the last couple months as reason for optimism. The offense woke up a bit, the starting rotation was better. That’s true. The problem, however, is that the Pirates went 22-38 from Aug. 1 on and 23-46 in the second half of the season.

The Pirates must help their young players. Right now. Because while Shelton isn’t wrong that aspects of the team improved in the last couple months of the season, the Pirates actually played their best baseball in the first couple months of the season.

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That was when they were at their healthiest, so that certainly helped. It was also when they had Daniel Vogelbach, a veteran hitter with a penchant for plate discipline and power in their order, and Jose Quintana, a veteran left-hander who could effectively eat innings and stop a losing streak on his own in their rotation.

After winning two of three against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the beginning of June, they were 24-28. A nine-game losing streak after that pretty much spelled doom.

In the coming days, Pirates fans will be able to read multiple stories from multiple outlets saying the team still needs to fill holes at catcher, first base, the rotation and the bullpen. Those articles will exist because it’s blatantly and obviously true. So obvious, in fact, that the players know it.

“I think it will be great if they bring in a veteran, especially a pitcher to come over here,” Contreras said through team interpreter Mike Gonzalez. “When we had Quintana here, Quintana was huge for us. The IQ of baseball that he has, the information that he would share with us, even just seeing how he would go about his day, his preparation. I feel like having veterans around here, especially us being such a young team, is going to be very beneficial for us. It's not only going to build us, but also mold us in a type of way that will prepare us going into the future as big-league ballplayers.”

The Pirates’ Oneil Cruz gets sprayed with water by Jack Suwinski after Cruz got walked with the bases loaded to win the game 3-2 against the Cardinals on Monday, Oct. 3, 2022, at PNC Park on the North Shore. Chasing after Cruz is Rodolfo Castro.
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It can be fun to run out a team of rookies and see what they’re made of. Take Wednesday’s season-finale win over the Cardinals as an example. Castro, Bae, Cruz, Castillo, Suwinski and Oviedo all played big roles in an exciting win.

At the same time, there are countless other examples this season that prove young players have high variance, and there’s a 62-100 record proving the Pirates were not actually all that close to where they’d like to be.

So the front office must pick its spots. Shelton has hinted at positions of need already. In the last days of the season, he discussed the need for finding more swing-and-miss guys to fill the back end of the bullpen. He explained that Miguel Andujar is a valuable waiver claim because he’s another right-handed bat in a heavily left-handed lineup. There’s two spots right there.

Preferably, the Pirates would probably like to find a right-handed hitter who can play first or catcher, two spots where there aren’t obvious starters for next season.

The point is this: The Pirates saw this season what a team full of rookies can look like. It can be good and exciting, and it can also be frustrating. If the roster is filled with nothing but young players, it is unfair to expect them to win right away. That’s how you cycle through multiple classes of rookies without gaining traction.

The Pirates must supplement that group with some experience, ballasts to help steer this young ship and ensure that a rebuild that’s shown some promise doesn’t go completely adrift.

First Published: October 6, 2022, 4:12 p.m.

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