Derek Shelton aims to continue carving the Pirates' "culture" in 2021.
And within that, as he must've made clear a half-dozen times in his half-hour media session yesterday as part of Major League Baseball's virtual Winter Meetings, he aims to cultivate "competition." Meaning for roster spots, for starting jobs, for roles, for pretty much everything right down to the next pitch, the next at-bat.
"We go into a spring training that, while we don't know all of what lies ahead, I will tell you that for the Pirates there'll be a lot of competition," Shelton would say as part of his intro before taking questions. "That excites me. And it's something we've been pretty transparent with our group about."
He sounded as sincere as I've come to expect. He's serious. The "competition" will be a subcomponent to the "culture," and he's spent enough time with successful operations to know that's an essential symbiosis.
One problem ...
Yeah, that.
When I pressed Shelton to walk me through his everyday eight, for example, and share where some of that "competition" could occur, he replied, "I think there's going to be competition everywhere, honestly. It's going to be one of those things where we have a lot of positions that are open, we've talked to our group specifically about the number of opportunities there'll be. And we've told them, when you come into camp, you have to be prepared for those opportunities."
OK, he's not ready to share those yet?
That's all right, I thought. So, as I'd done occasionally over this offseason, I whisked around the ideal horn in my own mind. Which, after each shuffle of the deck, winds up looking like this:
• C: Jacob Stallings
• 1B: Josh Bell
• 2B: COMPETITION
• 3B: Ke'Bryan Hayes
• SS: COMPETITION
• LF: Bryan Reynolds
• CF: My God, there's no one
• RF: COMPETITION
But wait. The subject arose again, and Shelton took it further.
"I'd say there are certain places where guys are penciled in," he'd proceed. "I think it's pretty fair to say Ke'Bryan's going to play third. And we have some other guys who are locks. Reynolds is going to play one of the two spots in the outfield. We know Greg's going to play right. Josh and Colin Moran are going to get ABs. Stallings is going to catch. Fraz is going to play second, probably bounce out and play left ... so I think there are some spots we know."
He then referenced Ben Cherington's remarks a week ago that shortstop, in particular, would be a three-way "competition" between Kevin Newman, Erik Gonzalez and Cole Tucker.
"As Ben talked about, we feel really good about all three of those guys," Shelton continued. "The other thing I feel really good about is that all three of those guys can play other positions. They can bounce around the field. And versatility's going to be extremely important to this club."
Hm. A lot to unpack there. But I'll give that a try, too, in pieces:
• If Gregory Polanco's handed right field, sorry, there's no "competition." I get that he'll make a team-high $11.6 million and that the only way to clear that contract is to play him and hope for a spurt. It's the right move. But it can't function in any straight-faced way within the spirit of "competition" after he batted .153 with 65 strikeouts against 23 hits.
• Because all other everyday positions had a name assigned, if you were tracking up there, Shelton's really just talking about "competition" at shortstop and center field. And since, my God, there's no one to play center, he's really just talking about shortstop, as Cherington had.
• My God, there's really no one to play center. Reynolds will have his hands full rebounding at the plate from the 2020 season's single biggest individual disappointment, and the last thing he needs is an added burden in the field. Also, he doesn't have the tool kit to man center for a contender, so starting him there would be short-sighted to the extreme.
• If Reynolds is moved to center, Frazier will play left? Where his defensive grade plummets from Gold Glove at second to well below average in left. And to what end? To keep an inconsistent bat in the lineup?
• Lumping Bell and Moran together when getting to first base ... I'm at least a little uncomfortable with that. Peak Bell is a billion times more important to the Pirates than peak Colin Moran, and that has to be the priority.
• The shortstop "competition" matters only if Newman can bounce back. Which he can. Gonzalez will turn 30 in August, and Tucker's never hit at any level. If Newman doesn't figure it out, shortstop restarts from scratch.
• Similarly, Frazier's greatest contribution to the Pirates will be as trade bait. Second base will belong, soon enough, to top hitting prospect Nick Gonzales. So, whatever, play Frazier.
• If the schedule calls for 162 games, Hayes needs to appear in 163.
• Stallings needs actual help. The 19-41 season we just witnessed was loaded with lowlights, but John Ryan Murphy going 0 for 11 with 11 strikeouts against the Reds still somehow cracks my top-10 list.
One gets the idea.
This won't be "competition," with or without my silly quote-marks.
No, what this'll be is more of the rancid remnants of Neal Huntington and Kyle Stark leaving behind one of baseball's most barren minor-league systems. Because the uglier truth than anything above is that the real competition that needs to be taking place is the one that should've been taking place for the past decade-plus in the minors. And wasn't. At all.
If it had been taking place, then the 2013-15 playoff teams, built on smart trades and free-agent signings advised by smart men who'd soon leave to get away from Huntington and Stark, could've continued winning if only there'd been any semblance of a system underneath. There wasn't. When A.J. Burnett and J.A. Happ left, there should've been a pitcher or two or five clawing at the ladder to climb up from Indianapolis and, instead, there were absolutely none.
That's what can't happen again.
That's why Cherington's chosen the correct path in addressing the system first and foremost.
And that's where the real competition -- no silly quote-marks -- will matter.
In the interim, I won't make a habit of making light of Shelton's push. He does need to carve that culture, and he's got to start it now. And part of that culture, unquestionably, has to be that players don't feel entitled to the jobs or roles they hold, as it seemed several did in 2020. He knows the right way, and he's got no reason to wait.
But let's also see it for what it is and, maybe, for what it will be.