STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- With 37 games left in a forgettable 2019 campaign, the Pirates are now holding auditions of sorts.
These extended looks aren't necessarily earth-shattering. We're going to be focusing today on a few of those position players on the fringes of the 2020 club's Opening Day 25-man roster.
We'll offer up a case for and against each candidate, hopefully quantifying their value to the 2020 Pirates along the way, while identifying the one thing -- the most crucial aspect of their performance -- that they can do between now and the end of the season to solidify their chances of making the roster.
For the sake of clarity, we will leave September call-ups out of this. For now.
We'll start with last September's spark plug whose light has been considerably dimmed.
PABLO REYES
Reyes is slashing .226/.294/.452 over the month of August -- 15 games in total -- while striking out 17.6 percent of the time against a 5.6 percent walk rate. This line is an improvement over his dreadful early-season major league line of .128/.190/.128. Both were light years away from his eye-catching Triple-A line of .286/.342/.543 in 191 plate appearances with Indianapolis.
The case for: The versatility is there -- Reyes opened up his already wide-ranging skill set by playing center field in the majors for the first time this year -- even if he does not rate excellent defensively. At the dish, the pro-Reyes contingent will likely point to his burgeoning power as an intriguing factor. The soon-to-be 26-year-old popped for 10 home runs and 15 doubles across those 191 PAs with Indy.
The case against: The emergence of the next hitter on our list is the chief strike against Reyes, but if we're looking for something that is within his own control, we may as well point to the fact that Reyes' newfound power stroke may come at a cost. He carried the highest strikeout rate of any of his minor league seasons in 2019 (19.7 percent) while his 26.3 percent major-league strikeout rate -- albeit against a small sample -- is uglier still.
At the end of they day, other in-house options possess a considerably larger amount of intrigue than Reyes.
The one thing: The one thing that Reyes can do to turn that opinion around is prove that the power he has shown in Indy is no fluke. With on base skills that are already firmly planted in the middle of the road, Reyes needs to stick out in other ways.
JOSE OSUNA
But how can he do so when his chief rival for a 25-man spot is playing so well. I wrote about his changes at the plate recently, and Osuna has not slowed as his sample size grows. Currently the right-handed power threat is slashing .317/.358/.618 on the season, good for a 1.1 fWAR.
The case for: Osuna has tapped into the launch angle revolution in exactly the right way, refusing to sacrifice exit velocity for it. The result has been more production. Unlike Reyes, this has not come at a cost with Osuna's strikeout rate the lowest it's ever been — 17 percent — with his walk rate carrying the same honor at 5.9 percent.
The biggest case for Osuna comes in his position flexibility... at the right spots. Once again, it's not flexibility for the sake of it, but Osuna's ability to play all four corner spots will give Clint Hurdle a variety of ways to get him the 15 or so PAs per week he'll need at minimum to maximize his production.
OK, one last item here. Osuna is out of options, meaning the Pirates would have to expose him to waivers before potentially stashing him at Indianapolis. If Nick Kingham can get claimed ...
The case against: As I stressed in the linked piece above, the sample size demon resides firmly on Osuna's shoulder, and it will be hard to see where he can gain at-bats over these last few weeks.
The one thing: With the club's likely intention to get as long of a look at the current state of Gregory Polanco as it can when he returns, Osuna may find himself needing to make enough noise to be the regular at third base. He has the ability to do just that.
JACOB STALLINGS
With Francisco Cervelli's days in Pittsburgh dwindling, this would seem to be a no-brainer. But what we're actually debating in analyzing Stallings at all is the glut of backup catching options that always seem to hit the market each year.
Stallings has gone from a friendly cameo that Pirates fans see once every few weeks into a catcher worthy of a bona fide time-share behind the plate. Make no mistake, Elias Diaz's disappointing season has done just as much to open the door for Stallings to seize the opportunity. And Kevin's kid has done exactly that, with a .263/.333/.404 line across 126 plate appearances -- easily his highest totals at the big league level.
The case for: Stallings rates as a better defender than Diaz this season, with a +7 Defensive Runs Saved rating and a +0.9 frame runs saved, per Fangraphs. Diaz brings forth less-than-ideal -14 and -10 ratings, respectively.
Of course, the key inflection point between catchers that everyone wants to talk about is how they handle the pitching staff. The jury's still out here, as Stallings statistically brings forth better results from the team's hurlers, but not dramatically:
Tap/Click to enlargeThe case against: 126 plate appearances and 272 innings are his largest samples to date, but are they enough? With all things being close to equal, is Stallings' ability to eke out a bit more production from his pitchers enough to vault over the potential seen in Diaz's 2018?
Stallings will also have one more year of pre-arbitration status, meaning he will make the league minimum in 2020.
The one thing: Stallings ... has to simply keep things steady. Of all of the cases we've listed here, I believe that his spot on the 25-man for 2020 is a mortal lock, save for the unlikely event that the Pirates make a splash at the catching position in free agency.
Like I said, a lock.
I'll be looking at some of the 2020 Pirates auditions on the mound in the next installment, but feel free to hash out any that you're passionate about in the comments.
MORE MOUND VISIT
Aug 19: Reynolds walks this way
Aug 15: Stratton the spin doc
Aug 13: A sputtering offense
Aug 12: Mitch Keller’s lack of curve
