Sources: Pirates eyeing Altoona as second site

As the labor dispute between Major League Baseball and the players association comes to a close, both sides' focus is shifting towards spring training 2.0 and starting the 2020 season. Assuming players and league officials agree to health and safety protocols by 5 p.m. Tuesday, then camps should resume by July 1.

The Pirates will be using PNC Park as their main site for spring training 2.0, but they will also need a secondary site for "taxi squad" players.

The front runner for that secondary location is Peoples Natural Gas Field, home of the Altoona Curve, sources tell DK Pittsburgh Sports.



While not yet official, it is almost certain there will not be a minor-league season this year. That means teams will not be able to go to their normal triple-A team to promote players if someone on the Major-League roster gets sick or injured. Instead, there will be a taxi squad of 20-25 players who teams can call on in case there is a roster opening.

While the Pirates are planning to use both of PNC Park's clubhouses, all indoor and outdoor facilities and even concourses during this abbreviated camp, it would be a tight fit to have 50 or more players preparing there. Plus, they will be using the stadium to play regular season games, meaning the taxi squad would have to prepare elsewhere anyway once the regular season begins.

According to J.J. Cooper of Baseball America, the league told each team to prepare a secondary site within 100 miles of their MLB stadium for the taxi squad.

Peoples Natural Gas Field is located 96 miles away from PNC Park, and while that can be a two-hour drive, the Pirates do not have many internal options. The only minor-league stadium in the Pirates' system that is closer to PNC Park is Monongalia County Ballpark, home of the West Virginia Black Bears, which is roughly 73 miles away. However, a source told DK Pittsburgh Sports that the Pirates are not considering using the site.

The Black Bears share the stadium with West Virginia University, which could potentially create logistical problems once school resumes, students return to campus and fall sports get underway. That would go for using any local university's facilities.


The Pirates' other minor-league homes are in Indianapolis, Bradenton, Fla., Greensboro, N.C. and Bristol, Va., all of which are located too far away to be a viable secondary site.

In addition to having two sets of bullpens and a normal playing field outdoors, Peoples Natural Gas Field also has two indoor batting tunnels and mounds inside those tunnels, plus athletic and training rooms. Between those tunnels and the actual playing field, the players who train there should be able to face live competition throughout the second spring training.

Pirates pitchers are already throwing live batting practices from their homes and training locations in preparation for spring training 2.0.

Altoona would seem to check all of the boxes Ben Cherington is looking for in a spring training location.

"We felt like Pittsburgh made the most sense," Cherington said in a recent Zoom call when asked why the Pirates would choose to host their second spring training in PNC Park. "A combination of wanting to minimize the amount that we are moving groups of people from one place to another, wanting to maximize our proximity and connection to health experts and medical providers, [and being] sensitive also to players’ lives. We’ve got players that have housing set up in Pittsburgh who normally wouldn’t have housing set up in Bradenton this time of year."

More news on how the taxi squad will operate should come in the coming days as MLB and the players association finish establishing health and safety protocols.