SAN DIEGO — Even with a pair of pitchers signed within hours of one another, the Pirates are far from finished this offseason.
The biggest item is obviously a potential Bryan Reynolds trade, something industry sources fully expect to happen at some point. Whenever it does, the Pirates will have an All-Star-sized hole in the outfield.
Tuesday morning at the MLB’s Winter Meetings brought the free agent signings of Jarlin Garcia and Vince Velasquez, pitchers who might not bring a ton of name recognition but check important boxes.
Garcia gives Pittsburgh an established lefty who can handle later innings with a lead. Velasquez could work as a starter or in a swingman role and has really seen his strike-throwing improve in recent years.
The biggest remaining piece remains catcher, a position hinted at a couple times by Pirates officials on Monday.
During his availability at the Manchester Grand Hyatt, Pirates manager Derek Shelton said that neither Endy Rodriguez nor Henry Davis will start the season in the major leagues. And while it seemed to rub some Pirates fans the wrong way on social media, it’s an understandable move.
As dominant as Rodriguez was, he played just six games at Triple-A Indianapolis. There’s a language barrier and command of the position from a defensive standpoint that Rodriguez does not yet have. He’s also versatile and can really hit. Catcher might not be his forever home.
The lack of top-level time is even more pronounced with Davis, who spent much of 2022 battling a broken wrist and caught zero games at Triple-A. Again, nothing wrong with starting those kids in the minors, then reacting to their first six weeks or so.
Which brings us, of course, to how the Pirates plan on addressing the position at the major league level, considering Rodriguez is currently the only catcher they have on the 40-man roster.
“The ability to catch, play second base and corner outfield, we’re talking about a rare athlete,” Shelton said of Rodriguez. “He just continues to get better. Is there still development? Yes. ... As excited as we get about things, we also have to temper that and let him get into a situation in Indianapolis this year and let him play and kind of work off that.”
The other clues on how the Pirates feel came from the baseball operations suite, when general manager Ben Cherington spoke a few hours after Shelton.
Cherington brought up Jason Delay and Tyler Heineman, two primary pieces in the revolving door of receivers in 2022. Delay was outrighted off the 40-man roster but remains in the organization. Heineman is a free agent after the Pirates designated him for assignment in mid-November.
The Pirates have interest in bringing back Heineman, Cherington said, and there’s also interest in further adding to the position this offseason ... just not in a way that would block Davis or Rodriguez.
The good news is Pittsburgh should have plenty of options. Roberto Perez, who was acquired to replace Jacob Stallings last season, is the most likely candidate.
He’s supposed to make his winter ball debut for Mayaguez in the Puerto Rican League any day now. Provided his surgically repaired hamstring checks out, he should return to the Pirates on a team-friendly contract.
If it doesn’t work out with Perez, Tucker Barnhart and Omar Narvaez — a pair of former division foes — are also fits.
Barnhart won a pair of Gold Gloves with the Reds, but he’s coming off a down offensive year with the Tigers, where he hit .221 with a .554 OPS in 94 games.
Barnhart has caught at least 114 games in each of the past five full seasons, including a career-high 138 in 2018. The Pirates don’t need that, but he’s a perfectly capable stopgap, someone who could potentially pair well with one of the kids.
Narvaez also had a rotten year in 2022, his OPS dipping from .743 to .597 across 84 games. The important part is that elite pitch-framing remained, with Narvaez (6) ranking seventh in Baseball Savant’s catcher framing runs last year.
If neither happen, the Pirates could target former Rays backstop Mike Zunino, who was an All-Star in 2021 while hitting 33 homers and driving in 62 runs (.860). For a few different reasons, including season-ending surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome in his left arm, Zunino playing just 36 games and hitting .148 with a .499 OPS.
If Zunino, 31, needs a place to play for a year to prove that he still can play, it certainly seems like the Pirates should be able to accommodate.
Bottom line, with pitching secured, we can expect catching to soon become a focal point.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: December 7, 2022, 11:00 a.m.
