SAN DIEGO -- The Pirates need a catcher.
It is hardly a secret. It has come up in conversation multiple times so far in Ben Cherington's sessions with the media during the Winter Meetings. He has often been the one to bring it up.
But so far, there is very little news on who will could suit up alongside Jacob Stallings next season. Jon Heyman reported the Pirates are one of the teams in the market for free agent Robinson Chirinos late Tuesday, but besides that, there have been no leads.
We have an idea of the mold of backstop he wants. On Monday, he said he was looking for a good defensive catcher who does well with game planning and managing a pitching staff. While being able to contribute on offense would obviously be a plus, it seemed to be secondary in his evaluation of what the Pirates need.
"The way we measure [a catcher's] performance has changed as much for that position as any in the time that I've been working in baseball," Cherington said. "It may be hard to find the guy that's the archetype in your mind of what Johnny Bench looked like... but there's also a lot of guys that I think we just appreciate differently now and can do things to help win games. There's still usually 60 to 70 of them in the big leagues every year, so they're out there."
There have been rumors swirling that the Pirates are looking for young, controllable catchers in a trade, especially in exchange for one of their veteran players, but it does not seem any deal is contingent on getting a catcher in return.
When asked if the Pirates would target minor-league players based on talent or need, Cherington said, “I think in that sense we’d probably just focus on the best player available."
• In addition to finding a catcher, Cherington said he would like to add to the position player group.
"There's some spots that we got good to solid production from last year... and there's some other spots we didn't get as much production out of, and those are spots we want to try to see if there's opportunities out there [to improve]."
While he did not name specific players or positions, the Pirates ranked near the bottom of the league in production from catcher, third base and right field. Some of those areas of need could be addressed with internal players. Gregory Polanco's rehab is going well and top prospect Ke'Bryan Hayes will likely make his MLB debut in 2020.
But Cherington said they are looking for upgrades, not to just add guys to plug holes. "We have enough players. We've got players. We can start the season tomorrow."
• There are some potential rule changes coming in 2020, including a mandate that relief pitchers must face at least three batters or finish the inning. Such a rule would kill left-handed specialists, or LOOGYs.
While Cherington said such a rule change is a variable for roster construction, it would also play a role in a relief pitcher's development, noting, "It's a slightly different kind of pitcher who can do that."
Last year, the Pirates had only six instances where a relief pitcher faced fewer than three batters and did not finish the inning, far fewer than the league average.
• Cherington has a reputation as an analytically savvy guy, dating back to his days with the Red Sox. While the Pirates had fallen behind the cutting edge in recent years, he chalked that up more to how the information was implemented.
"My impression's that [we're] very strong in terms of the people we have, but may be in need for some additional bandwidth in some areas."
A big part of that is integrating it more into different parts of baseball operations, particularly coaching in the major and minor-league levels.
Cherington added he has support to grow the analytics department, though it likely will not happen in the near future.
• As for the rest of the infrastructure he inherited, he said that he does not think they need to build from scratch, but they need to build on what is there.
"There's good people here. Good tools in place. There's some areas that I think we can be better at. Some of that's going to involve either more people or new people. Some of it's just going to involve attention, a different kind of attention."
• Not starting from scratch seems to be an early theme in his tenure as GM. While some fans may have wanted him to scorch the front office and roster when he arrived, he has retained a good portion of the baseball operations group and does not seem ready to "tank."
"Going with that approach wouldn't be authentic to who I am," Cherington said when explaining his retentions. "I couldn't pull it off if I tried... Not to say it can't work. That isn't necessarily the wrong approach for some team, but that approach wouldn't work for me."
He said later he wanted to get to know people better before he ultimately makes decisions about their future.
"I think, going in, you want to find out who those people [who can help you] are and find out if — whether it's a player or a person — there is something you can do to help uncover some hidden skill or untap some opportunity somehow."
• Cherington is a key figure in Alex Speier's book Homegrown, which documents his Red Sox days as they built their 2018 championship team. Cherington said he has read it, and while he believed Speier could have been more critical, he hoped it was a fair representation of his time in Boston.
But is it a fair representation to who he is now?
"No. Hopefully, we keep learning and growing, getting better at what we do and how we think about things. So I don't think I am [the same person I was in Boston], and I hope I'm not. Parts of me are probably the same."
