With just 34 games remaining, the Pirates entered Friday with a 47-81 record, the fourth-worst in Major League Baseball.
Offensively, they rank last in runs (463), home runs (100) and slugging (.364). On the pitching side, they are 27th in ERA (5.01) and 27th in walks per nine innings (.384). Neither aspect of their game has gone well.
However, most of this was more or less expected. The Pirates are in the early stages of a rebuild, and a potential 100-loss season was very much in play. There is only so much blame that can be put on hitting coach Rick Eckstein, pitching coach Oscar Marin or any of the assistant coaches. The question is: Is that enough blame to still make a change this offseason?
After finishing with the worst record in baseball last year, Ben Cherington and Derek Shelton opted not to make any changes to the coaching staff, looking for some stability after a massive overhaul the year prior.
So how is evaluating a coaching staff that isn’t getting results, but with a less than stellar roster?
“I think it’s the way we’re preparing for games, the way we’re executing during games and how we’re learning from the games and bringing that into the next game,” Cherington said during a Zoom call with local media Friday evening. “I understand some of that is more easy to see for me or others than it might be publicly. I think it’s mostly that.”
Some of that includes player improvement and how they handle any challenges the next day. Player feedback is also important, making sure that player-centric culture the organization is striving for is being built.
“So it can be a combination of both qualitative and quantitative inputs, but both need to be ... things we believe will bring us closer to winning more often,” Cherington said.
"They work so hard together every day in every aspect of what I just talked about," Cherington added shortly after "... This group thinks about practice all the time, continues to think about and work on ways we can get better with our practice, whether it relates to the connection or the relationships with players themselves and how they can build that trust so that we can get the extra 15 to 20 percent out of [each] player. Love the passion and intention that the group brings to those activities every day."
That doesn’t mean the 81 losses are excused, though. The home stretch could very well determine some coaches’ fates.
“These games are really important,” Cherington said. “We want to win these games. We want to be prepared to win. We want to play the right way. And obviously, it’s important for individual players to get playing time and to continue to improve and allow us to learn more about them.”
MORE FROM THE GM
• On Wednesday, major-league rosters will expand to 28 players for September callups. While the reinforcements are obviously a perk, it's different than other Septembers where the rosters expanded to the full 40-man.
What's also different is that unlike years past, the Class AAA season extends through September, meaning players don't have to be in the majors to keep playing in the final month.
"When you think about what's most important in September, it's playing time, it's development," Cherington said. "It's putting guys in a spot where their development needs are met, wherever that is, and then it's also winning games, being focused on winning games, and so our decisions going into September will be balancing all of those factors."
The Pirates will have discussions over the next couple days of who those two extra players will be, balancing the players' development and if they have earned an opportunity up in the majors.
• Earlier this week, the Pirates optioned second baseman Rodolfo Castro to Class AA Altoona, rather than Class AAA Indianapolis. Castro, despite spending three stints in the majors this season, has actually never played in Indianapolis.
The reason he was sent down to Altoona was because the Pirates wanted him to get some work as a shortstop -- something they didn't think he could get as consistently in Indianapolis -- and they view Castro as a leader with that group of players.
"It doesn't mean he won't see Triple-A at some point in the future," Cherington said. "He probably will. Right now we just thought Double-A was the right spot, best spot for him."
• As for players who could potentially being promoted to Altoona from high Class A Greensboro, you can't rule out a potential promotion, but the preference appears to be to keep Quinn Priester, Nick Gonzales, Liover Peguero and most of that team together through the rest of the season.
"They've got a chance to go into a playoff chase, the playoffs together and play together, play meaningful games and try to win together. So it doesn't mean that necessarily we wouldn't promote players off that team. Obviously, we have already this year. But we have that in mind, too, that there's something about learning how to play and win together that we want to give a chance to happen when we can."
• Recently, the Pirates were named the No. 4 farm system by both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline, a rapid improvement from where they were a few years ago.
Yes, Cherington paid attention to those rankings.
"The internal opinion means something, but it is an internal opinion. External opinions are important because they can be a check and balance on biases we might have about about our own players, so I think it is important. The thing about rankings is, none of us, including myself, including the Pirates, are ever perfectly right. That's why they’re rankings. But it means something and, most importantly, we know that part of winning in Pittsburgh is going to first, likely because we build a really strong base of young talent. And so, if the public sources are seeing improvement there from us, then, yeah, we do think that's important.
"It's also not something we're satisfied with at all — keep going. That's what we've talked about internally — keep going. We're not not satisfied at all with being top five or top six or whatever it is. Let's keep going."
