Coming into summer camp, it appeared most of the Pirates' roster was set. The new designated hitter spot would be rotated to keep players rested and at least four spots in the rotation were essentially decided. Some bench and bullpen roles would seemingly be up for grabs, thanks to the roster expansion, but most of the starting lineup and rotation seemed decided.
The one exception appeared to be third base. Incumbent third baseman Colin Moran was coming off another respectful campaign at the plate, but struggled in the field once again. Top prospect Ke'Bryan Hayes was major-league ready, and while there are still questions surrounding his bat, he will have one of the best gloves in the league once promoted. If Hayes is the future at the position, Moran's spot in the lineup looked to be in serious jeopardy.
However, Derek Shelton quickly shut down any talks of Moran losing the job at the hot corner just yet.
"I don’t think it’s an open competition," Shelton said on July 1, as players started to report to camp. "I think you’re going to see Colin there a lot. I think you’re going to see other people there. Colin could bounce over and play first if we decide to DH Josh that day. But I think you’re going to see Colin there."
Those words seemed blunt at the time, but at the moment, Moran does not have much of a challenge at his position. Hayes has yet to join the team on the field yet, with the Pirates not providing any reason as to why. Jose Osuna is figured to get much more playing time this year with the addition of the designated hitter, both as a DH and being the fielder to replace the starter when they rotate through that position. After them, the only other options at third base are Erik Gonzalez and non-roster invitee Phillip Evans.
Moran has taken some reps at first base and there will be days he is the DH, but on the whole, he is going to enter 2020 as an everyday player.
"Wherever they need me," Moran said during a Zoom call Monday. "I’ve been playing a good amount of third, some first. I know the DH is in the NL this year. Whatever way they need me. I just want to win some games this year."
Being an everyday player would be a leap for Moran. In his first two years with the Pirates, he has been primarily been one-half of a platoon, sitting against left-handers. In Bradenton, Fla., he and I spoke about how that created problems for him to get regular at-bats and follow a consistent routine. Getting more swings and starts against southpaws could help him stay in a groove.
“I know up here, it’s a production league. At the end of the day, you earn what you get in the big leagues,” Moran told me in Bradenton in February about hitting lefties. “I was always confident in myself. I know I can do it. I’m just trying to go out there and prove it.”
Now, with Hayes out of the picture at the moment and Osuna potentially being in the lineup elsewhere, Moran may get his wish.
"To say that he’s strictly going to be in a platoon situation, I don’t think that’s the case," Shelton said. "Now that we’re in a shorter season with 60 games, we’ll make sure that we play the leverage lineups that we feel are the best. I don’t think it’ll be something that we completely avoid him vs. left-handers.”
So 2020 may be the first year he gets consistent at-bats against lefties. It will also be a different year offensively because he will finally get to work with the same hitting coach again.
Throughout his career, Moran has had a new hitting coach every year. That is until now, when he will work with Rick Eckstein for a second season.
While the message has stayed mostly the same -- with Moran describing it as, "keeping it simple" -- there are benefits to working with him again.
"[There's] just more comfort," Moran said. "You build trust over time. Working with hitting coaches, it’s always building trust and building that relationship over time. Going into a year with a full year under our belt and just knowing how he works, he knows how I work, makes it that much more fun."
The two will try to help Moran build off a respectable 2019 campaign. While Moran's 13 home runs and 80 RBIs from last year were good, especially as a platoon, his .277/.322/.429 slash line was essentially league average.
A big part of trying to improve at the plate is paying attention to how the league attacked Moran last year.
"[I] trust my swing to this point, so [I'm] trying to spend good time having a solidified approach," Moran said. "I know I chased a lot of spin-in sliders, cutters, so working on seeing those pitches and little things like that just to make the adjustment back."
However, the biggest concern with Moran is not his bat, but his glove. He made 14 errors last year and was worth -21 defensive runs saved at third base. No player at any position cost his team more runs in the field than Moran last year, going by the latter stat.
His biggest problem is his range, especially going to his right and making the backhand play. Because of that, he will need to be very reliant on the coaching and analytics department to put him in the right spots, whether he is at third base or spelling Josh Bell at first.
"We have a new staff, new faces. So just picking their brains on different things has been fun. But just trying to be a consistent defender out there," Moran said.
Again, Shelton believes his third baseman can take that step.
“Spectacular plays are stuff that make ‘SportsCenter’ and everybody talks about,” Shelton said. “But, making the routine play — he’s going to do that, and I have full confidence in it."
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