Hundredth loss demands that Pirates 'use the entire year as motivation'

On Thursday night at PNC Park, the 2021 Pirates joined the ranks of the clubs from 1890, 1917, 1952-54, 1985, 2001 and 2010 as the ninth team in franchise history to have triple-digit losses in a season.

And that 100th came in convincing fashion, falling to the Cubs at PNC Park, 9-0, in a game where Miguel Yajure was chased after two innings and the offense could not muster an extra-base hit.

It took just one pitch for the Pirates to fall behind when Chicago's Rafael Ortega pounced on Yajure’s first offering and put it in the seats in right. In the second, Ortega took home on a double-steal, highlighting a six-run inning that chased Yajure.

That set the pace for a loss that had the pageantry fitting the club's 100th. And while the Pirates clearly went into this year focused more on improving in player development, the minors and growth, than wins or losses at the major league level, the century mark and the teams who reach that milestone are infamous for a reason.

“It’s not good, especially as hard as we work,” Derek Shelton said about losing No. 100. “We just have to keep moving forward.”

“I think guys are really just focused on finishing as well as they can,” Michael Chavis, who came over from the potentially playoff bound Red Sox at the trade deadline, said. “It's unfortunate that we have 100 losses. It’s one of those things that's somewhat out of our control at this point."

For some of these players, it was mostly out of their control. On Thursday, Tanner Anderson, a former Pirates farmhand, had his contract selected before the game. He ate five innings, becoming the 63rd different player the Pirates used this year, a franchise record.

Remember all 63? Of course you don’t. Nobody remembers every Trevor Cahill, Ildemaro Vargas and Todd Frazier. To prove it, I made a quiz to see how many players people can name. I got 53 out of 63. I’ll admit this sort of memory exercise isn’t my strong suit, but I’ve covered the team all season, from Bradenton to now. I made the list.

So while the Pirates reached 100 losses, how many of those can be attributed to players who have either passed through or don’t have a long-term future with the club?

The counterpoint is how few major-league ready prospects did this team have for the 2021 season that they constantly scoured the waiver wire? That will be less of an issue going forward, but with the exception of Ke'Bryan Hayes, very little 2021 MLB playing time went to top prospects.

Yajure got rocked Thursday night, but at least he is a highly-regarded young arm, the kind every franchise wants. The night before, 21-year-old stud right-hander Roansy Contreras made his big league debut and put up zeroes in three of the most important innings of the Pirates’ season.

There are plenty of other young players who will come through the farm system in the next year or two.

“I’d say we’re [headed] in the right direction,” Kevin Newman said. “The pieces are there, and they’re coming together. I think there were a lot of opportunities to learn this year throughout the whole team. So I think the guys are going to learn from that and take that into the offseason and just keep building on it.”

That belief and hope, gradually getting better and on the right path to playing meaningful baseball again, is all the Pirates have to offer at the moment. It’s not about 2021, but the future. They were upfront about it from the start.

“At the end of the day, we all hope the fans go on this journey with us,” team president Travis Williams told traveling media in March in Bradenton, Fla. “It's gonna be an exciting one."

Sure, the future is bright, but the present has been grim. Everyone knows they have to get better.

“We're up here busting it every game,” Bryan Reynolds said. “I think you guys can see that. We play hard. We fight. We rarely get blown out. It's pretty close.”

Reynolds has been the bright spot of this season, giving this club an All-Star center fielder to potentially build around. There have been times this year, like Wednesday against the Cubs where he hit a couple triples and made a pair of impressive catches in the field, where it almost feels like he is trying to will his team to victory but ultimately falls short.

This team would have reached 100 losses much sooner if it wasn’t for Reynolds. He’s not a rah-rah type of clubhouse leader, but he tries to set the example on the field and in his preparation so young guys can have a player to emulate. It’s a way to try to make sure this is the only 100-game loser he plays for.

“He’s a phenomenal baseball player, and that’s a guy that you can look at on the field and the way he prepares and goes about his business, and you can try to model yourself after as a player,” Newman said. “He’s doing it offensively and defensively. That’s the guy you want to look at and say, ‘Hey, how can I be like him?’ ”

Having Reynolds in place will make that transition from a last place team for three consecutive years to a competitive club easier. Not that anything about that process, or this year, has been easy.

“I think they’re going to use the entire year as motivation,” Shelton said of the 100 losses. “I don’t think a specific number accounts for that. I think we just have to continue to get better.”

JUSTIN BERL / GETTY

Miguel Yajure reacts after giving up a home run after Rafael Ortega homers on the first pitch of the game.