Earlier this week, I constructed a 25-man roster of the best Pirates players of the 2010s. So you had to see this Mound Visit coming.
Today, we're looking at the yin to the yang of that first list and look at the worst the Pirates had to offer last decade. The players were chosen by their performance and their legacy with the team. I didn't just pick the players with the 25 worst WAR totals because that wouldn't be any fun. Sometimes the worst players are the ones who are just good enough to cling on to a major league job.
To be clear, we will only be looking at their contributions with the Pirates from 2010-2019. If they excelled with another team but struggled with the Pirates, they will not make this list. With all of that out of the way, let's get started:
Starting lineup
C Rod Barajas: .206 BA, 11 HR, 31 RBI, 361 PA, 73 OPS+, -1 bWAR, -2.4 fWAR (fWAR factors in pitch framing)
The Pirates did not prioritize pitch framing until the 2013 season. Barajas is a big reason why they made the change. According to FanGraphs, Barajas cost Pirates' pitchers 19 runs with his framing in 2012, and his terrible OBP made him even less valuable. If there is any positive from Barajas' tenure in Pittsburgh, it is he indirectly lead them to Russell Martin the following winter.
1B Lyle Overbay: .227 BA, 8 HR, 37 RBI, 391 PA, 82 OPS+, -0.6 WAR
Before 2011, Overbay had recorded at least 30 doubles in each of his seven full major-league seasons, so they hoped the lefty would pummel the Clemente wall with line drives. Instead, his power evaporated, and his normally unspectacular, but satisfactory, glove took a turn for the worse. The Pirates ended up releasing him shortly after acquiring Derek Lee at the trade deadline.
2B Akinori Iwamura: .182 BA, 2 HR, 9 RBIs, 193 PA, 54 OPS+, -1.6 WAR
On paper, Iwamura looked like the perfect player for the Pirates at the time. Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker were both in Triple-A, so it made sense to acquire a veteran infielder to keep their spots warm. Iwamura had been a productive player the previous three years, but he never fully recovered from a partial ACL tear he suffered from a Chris Coghlan takeout slide in 2009. (Yeah, that Chris Coghlan.) He struggled both in the field and at the plate, batting well below the Mendoza Line with no power and no range to field his position. His 2010 season would end up being the 12th worst of any position player last decade, going by WAR. But hey, he did technically stick around long enough until Alvarez was promoted.
3B Andy LaRoche: .206 BA, 4 HR, 16 RBI, 271 PA, 52 OPS+, -1.3 WAR
It's hard to believe now, but it looked like the Pirates might have had something in LaRoche following the 2009 season. While he was far from spectacular, the 25 year-old held his own at the dish and was a plus defender at the hot corner, resulting in a respectable 2.4 WAR season. That optimism was obliterated the following year, and he lost his job to Alvarez in June. He fared even worse off the bench, and batted just .109 in his limited playing time after the All-Star break. LaRoche ended up being just another bust prospect from the Jason Bay trade.
SS Ronny Cedeno: .253 BA, 10 HR, 70 RBI, 956 PA, 81 OPS+, 1.6 WAR
I was tempted to put Bobby Crosby on this list since he was technically worse, but he was just a utility player who was brought in for depth for a sub-.500 team that never really had a shot. Does anyone really care or remember his tenure? Cedeno, on the other hand, was just a plain ol' mediocre player who coasted though two years doing just enough to keep his starting job. In a lot of ways, he's similar to Jordy Mercer, who made the best team list. But while Mercer was at least viewed somewhat favorably in Pittsburgh, Cedeno never was. The legacy clause gets him on the list.
LF Ryan Ludwick: .232 BA, 2 HR, 11 RBI, 133 PA, 90 OPS+, 0.0 WAR
Yes, there were outfielders who performed worse for the Pirates than Ludwick did in 2011. There were also bigger busts, like Jose Tabata and Lastings Milledge. However, Ludwick represented something different. The Pirates were buyers that trade deadline, and Ludwick was half of their haul. While that Pirates team was doomed to fail, Ludwick did nothing to slow the second half collapse. To make matters worse, he hit Pirates pitching very well the next three seasons as a member of the Reds.
CF Ryan Church: .182 BA, 3 HR, 18 RBI, 183 PA, 49 OPS+, -0.6 WAR
I didn't write this article chronologically. I listed out the roster, picked a player and wrote a blurb about them, in no particular order. I kept putting Church's blurb off because, for the life of me, I have nothing to say. He was just... bad. A bad part-time player on a really bad 2010 team. Saying anything else would be overkill.
RF Melky Cabrera: .280 BA, 7 HR, 47 RBI, 397 PA, 88 OPS+, -1.2 WAR
This pick probably won't be received well. Cabrera was a good guy to have in the clubhouse and was a decent role player for the first half of the season, but a thumb injury brought this production to a halt in the second half of the season. Going by FanGraphs' WAR leaderboard, Cabrera's -1.1 fWAR after the All-Star game was tied with Elias Diaz for the third worst in baseball. The Pirates just asked too much of the veteran, and while he did occasionally help with the bat, it did not make up for his defense.
Bench
C Ryan Doumit .269 BA, 21 HR, 75 RBI, 692 PA, 111 OPS+, 1.1 bWAR, -2.4 fWAR (fWAR factors in pitch framing)
According to FanGraphs, the Pirates have used 1,099 position players in their franchise's history. Of those 1,099, Doumit ranks 1,099th in career fWAR with -5.3. FanGraphs updated their catcher evaluation model to factor pitch framing for all backstops since 2008, and oh man, Doumit was bad. The worst since the advent of pitch tracking, actually. In 2008, he cost Pirates pitchers 63 runs with his framing alone. He did not fare much better in the 2010s, either. There will never be another catcher this terrible defensively, but at least Doumit offered a good bat.
OF Matt Diaz: .259 BA, 0 HR, 19 RBI, 231 PA, 77 OPS+, -0.5 WAR
The Pirates entered the 2011 season with a couple of intriguing corner outfielders in Tabata and Alex Presley, but they wanted to add a veteran to the mix to ease their workload. Diaz was coming off a good five year run in Atlanta, so his 2 year, $4.25 million deal looked like a relative bargain at the time. Diaz just never fit in with the Pirates, though, and they ended up shipping him back to the Braves in August, eating a chunk of his salary along the way.
INF Jeff Clement: .193 BA, 7 HR, 13 RBI, 178 PA, 55 OPS+, -1 WAR
Clement was a Baseball America top 100 prospect from 2006-2008, but he struggled in the majors with the Mariners in 2008 and failed to make the opening day roster in 2009. Still, the Pirates bought low on him in a deal that sent Jack Wilson and Ian Snell to Seattle, but Clement failed to live up to his potential in Pittsburgh, playing sparingly in 2010 and 2012. Clement's stock was falling well before he came to Pittsburgh, but the Pirates did little to rectify it.
INF/OF Corey Hart: .222 BA, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 57 PA, 62 OPS+, -0.5 WAR
The 2015 Pirates were a complete team, featuring outstanding starting and relief pitching, a terrific defense and a good core of starting position players. They did need some bench bats, though, which is what brought them to Hart. Hart had tortured the Pirates for years with the Brewers, but he had nothing to offer the Bucs in 2015, combining anemic offense with horrendous defense. He did manage to reach the 1,000 hit plateau in his final season at least.
UTL Brandon Inge: .181 BA, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 110 PA, 25 OPS+, -0.5 WAR
Inge enjoyed a long, successful major league career, playing 13 seasons, earning an All-Star appearance and starting for a pennant winning team. His career was coming to a close by 2013, but the Pirates gave him one last look to try to squeeze out the last little bit of talent in his bones. He simply just did not have anything left in him, though he was still a decent enough defensive replacement for a bit.
Rotation
SP1 Tyler Glasnow : 5.79 ERA, 141.1 IP, 1.71 WHIP, 71 ERA+, -1.7 WAR
Again, this is for how each player performed with the Pirates. Glasnow was arguably the Pirates' most hyped prospect this decade, but he was grossly mishandled. Now Pirates fans will get to watch him with the Rays the next four years and wonder what could have been.
SP2 Nick Kingham: 6.67 ERA, 110.2 IP, 1.59 WHIP, 61 ERA+, -2.1 WAR
Kingham's major league career started with a bang, taking a perfect game into the seventh inning his debut. That was the unquestioned highlight of the previous top 10 prospect's career, as he continued to lose more zip on his fastball and allow more runs as his time in the majors continued. Unlike Glasnow, who was mismanaged, Kingham's main problem was he never fully recovered from his Tommy John surgery. Perhaps he can find his footing in Korea and make a comeback.
SP3 Jon Niese: 4.91 ERA, 110 IP, 76 K, 1.55 WHIP, 0.7 WAR
After years of succeeding on nearly every pitcher reclamation project, Niese was Ray Searage's first true failure. Niese fit the sinker baller mold the Pirates usually looked for, and while he had been mostly average in the years leading up to the trade, he looked to be at least an inning eating back of the rotation guy. The Pirates' offense bailed him out in the opening months of the season, carrying him to a 6-2 record in early in June, but that good fortune quickly came to an end, and he was bumped from the rotation and eventually traded at the deadline. Meanwhile, Walker, the player the Pirates gave up for Niese, had a career year in 2016.
SP4 Jonathan Sanchez: 11.85 ERA, 13.2 IP, 15 K, 2.42 WHIP, -0.9 WAR
Neal Huntington signed three notable free agents ahead of the 2013 season: Russell Martin, Francisco Liriano and Jonathan Sanchez. In the infamous words of Meatloaf, "Two out of three ain't bad." Sanchez would be much higher, but he was cut after just four starts and a relief appearance.
SP5 Zach Duke: 5.72 ERA, 159 IP, 96 K, 1.65 WHIP, -1.1 WAR
Duke was a fine starter from 2005-2009, even getting an All-Star nod in 2009. However, the start of the new decade was rough for him, and the Pirates would end up dealing him for a player to be named later after the 2010 season. Duke got his second wind as a reliever and pitched through the rest of the 2010s, but his time in Pittsburgh ended on a sour note.
Bullpen
Take your pick of a 2019 reliever
Quite frankly, there were three or four pitchers from last year's bullpen who could make this list. Dovydas Neverauskas, Clay Holmes, Geoff Hartlieb and Montana DuRapau all have intriguing stuff, but it did not translate to the majors at all in 2019. For the sake of variety and making sure other teams' relievers get recognized, I'm limiting this list to just one pitcher from last year's roster. As a consolation, you get to pick him. Deal?
Swingman Sean Gallagher: 6.03 ERA, 34.1 IP, 22 K, 1.75 WHIP, 68 ERA+, -0.5 WAR
Every team goes through plenty of Gallaghers over the course of the decade: A disposable relief pitcher picked off the waiver wire or bought for cash. Every once in awhile it works out. It didn't here, and not much needs to be said besides that.
RHP Radhames Liz: 4.24 ERA, 23.1 IP, 27 K, 1.63 WHIP, 0.0 WAR
At first glance, Liz's numbers don't look that bad. It's by no means anything special, but he looks like a generic replacement level pitcher. So why does he make the list? Because of the context of those runs he allowed. Liz managed to lose four games in 14 appearances in 2015 and had a -2.02 Win Probability Added. That was the worst for any Pirates relief pitcher this decade, and he accomplished it over the course of just 23.1 innings. He, on average, reduced the Pirates' chances of winning by nearly 15% every time he came in to pitch that season. That is a special level of bad.
RHP Ernesto Frieri: 10.13 ERA, 10.2 IP, 10 K, 1.78 WHIP, -0.6 WAR
As the 2014 season progressed, it became increasingly obvious the Pirates needed to move Jason Grilli. They eventually found a taker in the Angels, getting Frieri in return. Frieri continued to struggle and was released in September, but not before he injured Paul Goldschmidt with a pitch, which set forth a chain reaction that lead to the Diamondbacks retaliating and Andrew McCutchen landing on the DL, potentially costing the Pirates the division.
LHP Josh Smoker: 11.12 WHIP, 5.2 IP, 2.82 WHIP, 38 ERA+, -0.4 WAR
While the Pirates had two of the premier southpaw relievers this decade, they had a hard time finding left-handed middle relief. Smoker was just one installment in a long line of failures that included the likes of Cory Luebke, Joe Beimel and Mike Zagurski, but Smoker gets the spot for not only having 7 runs charged to him in 5.2 innings pitched, but for allowing an additional five inherited runners score. He faced 31 batters with the Pirates, and he let 12 people score. Yikes.
SU Joaquín Benoit: 7.56 ERA, 8.1 IP, 3 K, 2.04 WHIP, 59 ERA+, -0.6 WAR
In 2017, Huntington did not feel strongly enough at the deadline to either buy or sell, so he ended up doing a little of both. He shipped Tony Watson to Dodgers and brought in Benoit as a set-up man. Benoit was a very reliable reliever from 2010-2016, but stumbled a bit with Phillies in the early parts of 2017. The Pirates hoped he would turn it around, but he ended up crashing and burning. He allowed home runs in his first two appearances and followed with a pair of three run performances shortly after. The Pirates ended up pulling the plug after just eight appearances, opting to give their younger pitchers a look instead. While Benoit was not a good fit, Huntington did end up getting Oneil Cruz for Watson, so at least this entry has a happy ending.
CL Daniel Hudson: 4.38 ERA, 61.2 IP, 66 K, 1.46 WHIP, -0.1 WAR
Ok, there were obviously worse pitchers than Hudson, so don't interpret this as "Hudson is the closer, which means he's the worst." He's the closer because he was brought in as a late inning guy and a potential future closer, but he ended up taking seven losses and finishing with a -1.55 WPA. The thing is, the Pirates scouts' were not wrong in their assessment. Hudson has proved he can get outs late in games since leaving Pittsburgh, including the final one of the 2019 World Series. The Pirates just did not coach him properly, and they ended up squandering that potential set-up man or closer.
Injured list
Lonnie Chisenhall (evidently not too legit to quit)
All stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference, unless otherwise noted.
MORE MOUND VISIT
Jan. 1: The all-decade best Pirates team
Dec. 21: Can catchers get by with just defense?
Dec. 3: Ten catchers to replace Diaz
Nov. 30: How Shelton can build culture
