ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Fire everyone.
Before broaching anything related to this franchise's future, whether 2020 or beyond, just remember that's got to come first.
Man, it was a woeful Wednesday for the Pirates here at Angel Stadium, from the stunning, seismic word that Jameson Taillon fell victim to another Tommy John surgery, to his teammates' visibly emotional reactions to, eventually, the 7-4 evisceration by the equally awful Angels that followed.
And all through it, speaking solely from this perspective, all I could think about was this: Is it time to rebuild? To rip it all down?
In a way, that's never felt more inevitable than now. Because, with Taillon out for all of 2020 and undoubtedly part of 2021, the rotation's left in the potentially capable but predictably unstable hands of Chris Archer, Trevor Williams, Joe Musgrove, maybe Mitch Keller, maybe Steven Brault, maybe Dario Agrazal ... and maybe it's just too much predictable instability to withstand.
Know what I mean?
Now add into it that Bob Nutting, no matter who's working for him in the front office this winter, isn't about to authorize a fraction of the tens of millions needed to add a Taillon-level starter, so wipe away any notion of free agents at any level, much less a Stephen Strasburg, Dallas Keuchel or, hey, Gerrit Cole. Even a middling starter costs a mint anymore. As close as the Pirates will come to spending on this will be exercising Archer's $8.25 million club option, which, given how he's looked of late, might be an unforeseen bargain.
But that's it. The rotation will be constructed on crossed fingers. And I'll say it again: That'll apply no matter who's in charge.
It's scary stuff.
Or, if seen through another prism, it's an opportunity to truly rebuild. To truly do it right.
What's strange, but could help, is that the everyday eight isn't exactly old: Bryan Reynolds and Kevin Newman are rookies. Ke'Bryan Hayes, the only position-player prospect in plain sight, should be at third base ... now, actually. Josh Bell just turned 27 on this very day, but he's got three more years of team control before free agency, and those could be career-peak years.
That might not be a championship core of youth, but it's not nothing. It's half of a really nice lineup for a long time to come. Another smart acquisition or surprise is all it'd take, stupid as that might sound in this particular summer.
But there's no solution to be seen for the pitching. None. The system's barren of most everything, but that goes double for arms. Now that Keller's arrived, presumably for good, there's the blackest of black holes in his wake in the minors.
Add up all of the above, and it means pitching prospects are a must. But those, too, are expensive in their own way, scary in their own way. Almost always, they come from a contender in exchange for an elite, established player.
The Pirates do have one exceptional commodity to trade, though I type this with zero joy, and that's Starling Marte.
He's 30, but he's having arguably the most complete season of his terribly under-appreciated Pittsburgh career -- .288/.329/.497 with 20 home runs, 69 RBIs, 20 steals, seven outfield assists -- and that's most fairly weighed by his stats against other center fielders. Which I can condense that to a single sensational stat: His 50 extra-base hits are the most in Major League Baseball of anyone at the position but Mike Trout, his counterpart in this series, who has 64.
On this night, it was just a single and a steal ...
... but then, that's the ho-hum norm. That or more. First two games of the series saw six total hits.
Funny, but I mentioned to Marte in St. Louis over the weekend that I felt this might be his most complete season, and he replied, "Not yet."
Then, after he threw out Kole Calhoun at the plate here Tuesday night, he walked up to me with a smile and offered unsolicited, "OK, maybe now."
Huge grin, too.
Some of the faithful back home ride him over the odd lapse, but facts are facts: He's among the best on the planet at what he does.
What's that worth in a trade?
Well, wait. Marte's real trade value, as with most players, comes in cost and years of control. He's got two club options coming after this season, $11.5 million for 2020 and $12.5 million for 2021. Both are eminently affordable -- even for the Pirates -- as well as protecting an employer from having to overpay for any excessive period.
There's no reason whatsoever that bona fide close-to-the-majors starting pitching prospects couldn't be culled in return for Marte. Or for Felipe Vazquez, for that matter, though not as much because he isn’t an everyday player
Except for one, of course: The Pirates don't employ executives capable of executing that transaction.
And please, don't cite the Andrew McCutchen trade. Neal Huntington and his staff did quite well to get Reynolds and Kyle Crick from the Giants, but that deal came with a completely different dynamic, with Cutch on an expiring contract. Believe it or not, the ask on Cutch was -- and should've been -- lower than the ask on Marte.
Or Jason Bay.
Or Xavier Nady.
Or Gerrit Cole.
Need any more big names that brought back next to nothing?
Whatever moves are to come, whether it's of a Marte scope or something smaller, there's no such thing as rebuilding while relying on the same people who've already demonstrated over a dozen years they're not to be trusted with a task this important.
Go ahead and rebuild. But rip it down from the top.
• It feels almost sacrilegious to speak an untoward syllable about Reynolds, given that he's, you know, leading the majors in batting as a rookie. But this particular outcome might well have hung on this in the Angels' four-run fourth inning:
That's Luis Rengifo stroking a double into left, and that's Reynolds hoping to keep the lead runner from scoring the go-ahead run and, instead, doing that.
"I just came in, trying to make a play at the plate, which there probably wasn't one," Reynolds told me. "And I just tried to get it and I missed it. Yeah, I probably should've just fielded it and thrown it to second."
No question.
It was the second Little League home run allowed by the Pirates on this trip, the other one also at Reynolds' expense in St. Louis.
Maybe he's getting too aggressive?
"I think his overall awareness caught up with him on the play," Clint Hurdle responded to my question on that. "Because there wasn't a play at the plate."
Hurdle seemed more bugged by a ball in the eighth that fell in shallow left between Reynolds and Erik Gonzalez. Reynolds needed to call off Gonzalez, sprinting out with his back to the infield, and take charge.
• Archer was ... eh, not as bad as the line of four runs, three earned, on five hits and two walks over five innings. He did strike out 10, leaning hard on that increasingly wicked slider, and he looked completely in command for all but the final out of the fourth.
"For 3 2/3, it was really sharp, precise," Hurdle said. "Swing-and-miss was there, slider was big, fastball velocity ... he used all four pitches. And then, what, three straight hits? Whether it was execution or location of the pitches, he paid for it."
Still ...
"I only gave up five hits and was able to make guys swing and miss at the right time," Archer was telling me. "So, yeah, stuff feels good. Pitch ability today was really good."
• This trip wrapped up at 2-4, the overall record is 50-70, and the record is 6-25 since the All-Star break. On deck at PNC Park this weekend are the first-place Cubs, as well as their fans filling three-quarters of the place. It could get worse.
• Encouraging bouncebacks for both Keone Kela, fresh off his 10-game suspension for the Cincinnati brawl, and Kyle Crick, fresh off that grand slam in St. Louis. Kela zipped 1-2-3 through the sixth on 11 pitches, and Crick conceded a single in the eighth but capped it with a swinging K of Trout.
• Hurdle had said before the game he'd be down three relievers for the night. Hence, Geoff Hartlieb in a one-run game burping up three more runs.
Real problem: Hartlieb and his 8.65 ERA being in the majors at all.
Real problem beneath that: Oh, you know.
• Vazquez would have been available had the game gotten tied, Hurdle clarified, even though he'd pitched the previous two days. He wasn't going to burn Vazquez down a run. No issue there.
• I'd never seen Trout play baseball before this. Not even on TV, as I can't recall the last time I watched an American League game in any form. And all he did was go 0 for 7 with six walks while committing an error.
"I thought our pitchers were respectful and smart," Hurdle said. "We did a very professional job against him."
I hear he's pretty good, though.
• Having Trout here is like having Connor McDavid in Edmonton. No one knows where the world's best player in the sport works, primarily because they can't watch him in the playoffs.
• If anyone finds anything nefarious behind the handling of Taillon's health, then they're trying way, way too hard. I'd spoken to him extensively before this happened. He'd been everywhere, seeing everyone, most of those well outside the Pirates' domain. He's a super-smart guy, as well as an independent thinker. Not one move was made along the way without him doing his diligence.
• All of them. Every last one of them.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE INJURIES
• Richard Rodriguez (10-day IL, shoulder)
• Gregory Polanco (10-day IL, shoulder)
• Francisco Cervelli (60-day IL, concussion)
• Rookie Davis (60-day IL, forearm)
• Lonnie Chisenhall (60-day IL, ski lift repair)
Here's the most recent full report.
THE SCHEDULE
Everybody's flying home. I am, too. Everybody's off Thursday. I am, too. The Pirates get back at it Friday night at PNC Park with a 7:05 p.m. first pitch. Starters for the series, in order: Joe Musgrove, Steven Brault, Mitch Keller. The Sunday game will be the annual Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa.
THE COVERAGE
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