Since Monday, the Pirates have jettisoned away their four longest-tenured player -- including trading Jacob Stallings to the Marlins -- signed a replacement catcher in Roberto Pérez and made their final 40-man roster decisions. All of this comes just before the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the players association and Major League Baseball expires Wednesday night at 11:59 p.m.
On Wednesday, Ben Cherington was made available to local media via Zoom to discuss what has been one of the busiest 72-hour stretches of his time as Pirates general manager.
ON TRADING STALLINGS
Cherington had received calls on Stallings back during the July trade deadline, and the Marlins in particular remained persistent.
But the actual trade that sent him to the Marlins came together very quickly.
“There certainly was never a timeline up until probably 24 hours before it happened,” Cherington said. “Our full expectation was that Stalls would be a Pirate going forward, but, you know, these things sometimes come together quickly. In this case, it did.”
In return, the Pirates received three players: Right-hander Zach Thompson, minor-league right-hander Kyle Nicolas and outfielder Connor Scott.
“Thompson's an interesting case,” Cherington said, describing the three players. “Obviously a little bit of a late bloomer, I suppose. Still really early in his major league career, and what we saw last year and we spent a lot of time on him was a guy who, number one, his pitches themselves have ticked forward. The quality of the pitches. And then he's also really starting to figure out how to use them. He generates a ton of weak contact, strike-thrower, he's got a really good cutter, multiple good secondary pitches, and by all accounts, superb person, teammate, work ethic, all that stuff. Our group was high on him, and there's an opportunity to add someone we think can be part of our rotation mix in 2022 and obviously, given where he is in his career, has a chance to be here for a while.
“The other two guys, obviously, in the minor leagues, and would expect that they would have more time in the minor leagues going forward. Kyle Nicolas is a big, physical right-hander with a really good fastball [and] slider. Still working on command and a third pitch. We believe based on our assessment, that he has a chance to start. There's some things he needs to develop in order to be a starter in the major leagues, but we're going to keep him in that role. Excited to work with him. Again, a really good reputation as a worker and a teammate. The Pirates spent a lot of time on him in the draft, coming out of Ball State, so there's a good history there.
“Connor Scott's a really interesting, athletic outfielder, who adds to our mix of upper-level outfielders who are capable of playing center field. He can run, he's athletic, he can really throw. He's got some pop, and starting to figure some things out this year. We're excited about getting to work with him, frankly, and getting him in our hitting program, and we hope there's some untapped potential.”
The Pirates were able to replace their Gold Glove catcher with another in Pérez, but trading Stallings was a difficult decision because of his talent and how liked he was within the organization.
“We felt like if we could do both — maintain and strengthen the [catching] position and add young talent — that just made sense for us, even if it was hard,” Cherington said.
ON THE FUTURE OF CATCHING
For a brief period after the Stallings trade, the Pirates did not have a single catcher on their 40-man roster. That changed once the Pirates signed Pérez to a one-year, $5 million deal.
Pérez has a pair of Gold Gloves under his belt, and while he’s had some good offensive seasons in the past, including hitting 24 home runs in 2019, he has struggled at the plate the last two years, slashing just .149/.245/.319 last season over 161 trips to the plate.
“He's an excellent defender,” Cherington said. “He’s coming from an organization that has done a great job and one that we admire, in terms of its pitching development and pitching infrastructure. He's been a part of that for a long time. Certainly caught some great pitchers there. We like a lot about that part of his game. He's known as a fierce competitor, passionate. He comes from a long line of great Puerto Rican catchers, so continue that tradition. There’s pop in the bat, good offensive year in 2019. 2020 was down and then he was banged up this year. We're excited about getting him healthy and seeing what he can do offensively.”
Of course, the Pirates will need to find another catcher by opening day, and it won’t come internally as none of their catching prospects are major league ready.
“We'll keep looking at that position and see if we can strengthen it before spring training.”
ON THE NON-TENDERS
With all pending transactions needed to be completed before the CBA expired, the Pirates officially announced the free agent signings of Yoshi Tsutsugo and José Quintana Monday. To make room on the 40-man roster, Colin Moran and Steven Brault were designated for assignment (these became non-tenders after Tuesday). Additionally the Pirates, non-tendered Chad Kuhl Tuesday.
For Moran, it was about his contract status as an arbitration-eligible player that was the deciding factor, not signing Tsutsugo, who will get the majority of the playing time at first base.
“[We] just didn't feel like we could commit to going through the arb process and committing to the roster right now with Colin,” Cherington said. “I told him on the phone that, we believe he's a good major league baseball player and better than he showed last year and would want to keep the door cracked and see what happens later in the offseason. I'm sure he'll have other opportunities too."
Cherington also said they wanted to keep the door cracked for Brault.
“Obviously [his] health has gotten in the way the last couple of years, and that's frustrating because he's worked really hard,” Chreington said. “When he's feeling good physically, he's shown that he can be an effective major league pitcher. We've liked having Steven,
For Kuhl, there was some writing on the wall that he probably wasn’t going to stay as a starting pitcher, like he would prefer, with the Pirates when the club transitioned him into the bullpen in August. That change happened after Kuhl was away from the team because he contracted COVID-19. Rather than build him up as a starter again, they felt he could be activated immediately after his isolation period as a reliever.
“We felt like at the end of the year there, it made sense for us and for Chad to find out what it was gonna look like in the bullpen,” Cherington said. “As we get into the offseason, as we put our 40-man together, our pitching staff together, we just decided that it made the most sense for Chad and for us to give him a chance at free agency.”
ON KEEPING NEWMAN
One player who was on the bubble that the Pirates ended up keeping was Kevin Newman, who signed a one-year, $1.95 million deal ahead of Tuesday’s non-tender deadline.
The obvious appeal for keeping Newman is his defense, where he emerged as one of the best defensive shortstops in the National League and earning his first Gold Glove nomination. But he had a horrible season at the plate, posting a .574 OPS, the worst out of all hitters who had enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. The next lowest OPS among a qualified National League hitter was 121 points higher: Tommy Edman of the Cardinals at .695.
There’s also the question of depth. Oneil Cruz made a brief major league cameo at the end of the season, and while he would likely still benefit from more reps in the minors, he could be ready to play shortstop in the majors in 2022. There’s also Cole Tucker, who finished the season strong and is a good defensive shortstop as well. Not to mention plenty of options up the middle, including prospects Tucupita Marcano, Diego Castillo and Rodolfo Castro, plus players with more major league experience, like Michael Chavis and Hoy Park.
Still, they decided to hang onto Newman.
“One of the things we admire about Kevin is that when he has a challenge in front of him and he’s given a challenge, he works his tail off and gets after it,” Cherington said. “He’s almost narrowly focused on accomplishing a task. He was challenged last winter on his defense and sure enough he improved it. I know from talking to him a lot during the season and after the season he feels challenged about his offense and he’s committed to finding a way to improve, so we trust him to do that work. We’ll see how that plays out.”
With the previously mentioned non-tenders, Newman -- who made his debut in August of 2018 -- is now the longest-tenured Pirate.
ON THE STATE OF PITCHING
With Kuhl gone, and even with Quintana signed, the Pirates have very little in the way of established major league pitching. After them, the player with the most major league starts under their belt is Mitch Keller at just 39, 23 of which came last year where he was optioned to the minors for an extended period.
“We would still like to add to the rotation before spring training,” Cherington said. “We’ve been working on that front, aside from Quintana, both in free agency and trade. And Thompson can factor into that. Yes is the simple answer. We also feel like, while we don’t have guys with a lot of proven track records -- certainly, a lot of guys we have are still figuring themselves out at the Major League level -- what we do have, we think, is a lot of them. So a lot of guys who are capable of doing that, who are getting a taste of the big leagues or have had parts of a year or most of a year now and have a chance now to be through their transition period as we go into 2022.”
ON THE COACHING STAFF
Cherington ended the call by confirming the coaching hirings and changes that DK Pittsburgh Sports had previously reported: Andy Haines is the new hitting coach (with assistant hitting coach Christian Marrero and major league assistant Tim McKeithan continuing to assist), Mike Rabelo will coach third base while still assuming his major league field coordinator duties, and new hire Radley Haddad as Game Planning and Strategy coach.
The search for a hitting coach to replace Rick Eckstein and head the organization’s hitting program took quite a while to complete, but after a thorough search, Haines was selected.
“He struck us as just an uncommon combination of experience with open mindedness,” Cherington said. “Real desire to collaborate. Really excited to be working with him. Reports about him from the last couple places that he's been have been really strong."
Cherington also said that bench coach Don Kelly will assume infield coaching duties, which fell under former third base coach Joey Cora.
