BRADENTON, Fla. — They had become outsiders looking in on key competitions, to varying degrees their own struggles making this sort of stuff inevitable.
After the conclusion of Thursday’s 3-2 loss to the Blue Jays at LECOM Park, Pirates manager Derek Shelton knocked over one of the roster dominoes for his team, confirming that Roansy Contreras would indeed shift to a bullpen role.
Contreras worked an inning against Toronto and went just 1 2/3 innings his last time out. The smoke was there. The right-hander also struggled to throw strikes this spring and was too far behind the other potential starters to make up that ground.
“I think we saw the stuff playing in shorter stints, being able to execute the fastball and slider,” Shelton said. “That’s not to say at some point there’s not a transition back. But right now we see the best fit for us is a bullpen guy.”
It’s tough to fault Shelton and the Pirates. While Contreras did rediscover some velocity, there hasn’t been much consistency with the execution of his curveball and changeup. Far too often, after getting ahead in the count, Contreras will hang one or both, leading to walks or hard-hit balls.
The complicated part now becomes what happens to Contreras’ roster spot. He’s out of options, so the Pirates, one would think, will stash him in the bullpen to see if he takes to the new role.
As for the others, the Pirates also optioned Joshua Palacios and Nick Gonzales to Triple-A Indianapolis. Palacios was maybe the more surprising of the two given what he did last year, although this has been a quiet spring for him.
Palacios was hitless in a dozen Grapefruit League at-bats, striking out five times in the process. With Michael A. Taylor flanked by Bryan Reynolds and Jack Suwinski in the outfield, plus Connor Joe and either Edward Olivares or Billy McKinney, Palacios was squeezed out of a spot.
With Gonzales, the Pirates’ first-round pick in 2020, he actually has come on some of late, upping his spring average to .257 and his OPS to .726 with a single against Toronto. Important for Gonzales has been making more contact and striking out less.
However, he’s squarely behind LIover Peguero and Jared Triolo, the presumed starter at second base and someone who just keeps getting better. The final infield spot at this point should come down to either Peguero or Alika Williams.
If the Pirates keep Williams, it would likely be because they want to get Peguero reps, and they’d be more comfortable with the lack of playing time available to that spot. Williams is also the better defensive shortstop — important considering the need to give Oneil Cruz an occasional break and also entering for late-inning defensive purposes.
At the same time, if they were truly interested in making Triolo a utility type, they could bounce him aggressively all over the diamond. Shelton said postgame that they have not yet made that determination.
“We haven’t decided that yet,” Shelton said. “We have three days left. He’s put himself in a really good position, but we really haven’t decided yet.”
Gonzales has helped himself by playing second base, shortstop and third, all of them fairly well. But for Gonzales to return, he’ll have to find the combination of contact and power that sustained him during the final couple months of the 2023 season.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and @JMackeyPG on X
First Published: March 22, 2024, 3:24 a.m.
