Q&A: Haines on team's struggles, Cruz, need to get better

PHILADELPHIA -- After a rough start to the series, the Pirates finished strong at Citizens Bank Park on Sunday, giving a strong showing on defense, pitching and offense to take the series finale against the Phillies, 5-0.

The last area, offense, has been arguably the Pirates' greatest struggle this season. Despite bringing in a new hitting coach, Andy Haines, and promoting some promising prospects this season, the team still ranks near the bottom of the league in many key categories, including runs (448 entering Sunday, 28th in baseball), batting average (.220, 29th), on-base percentage (.287, 28th), (.361, 28th), OPS (.647, 28th) and strikeout rate (25.5%, 29th).

The offense had not fared well of late, scoring just 14 runs during a seven-game losing streak that was snapped Sunday and scoring just 113 runs over a 9-25 stretch since the All-Star break (3.3 runs per game). That total again ranked in the bottom 10% in baseball.

Before Saturday's game, hitting coach Andy Haines sat down with me for 20 minutes to discuss the challenges this team is facing offensively, a look behind the curtain for their process, Oneil Cruz, being the subject of criticism and more, to get a better understanding of what this team is trying to do to change this trend. A few notes will be added to provide more context to the reader. Besides that, this is our full, unabridged conversation.

Stumpf: This isn't the team you inherited in spring training. It's a lot younger. There are new faces here. How much does that influence approach as a team?

Haines: I think we always want to have an approach as a unit, as an organization. We always want to have an organizational philosophy. It's also a very individualized event. So we want to be very cognizant of that, and we want to make sure that we're doing everything we can to support and help each person be the best version of themselves. Right now, that entails a lot of guys growing in the big leagues, and they're learning in the big leagues. With the pressure that a major-league game entails, it's different than anything you can replicate in the minor leagues. That's where we're at. I know we're pouring everything we can into it. It's not a team narrative or a this-or-that narrative.

I guess I would say, if I'm being brutally honest here, there was a lot of turnover in the hitting space this year. There was a lot of teams that were interviewing hitting coaches. When I told some friends that I thought this was getting close, that this is really the job that I really wanted, a lot of people said, 'Do you understand the challenge that you're undertaking?' And I said, 'Of course I do. That's part of the intrigue.' We can't back away from that right now. You have to embrace how challenging this is and tackle it head on.

This is not a one-man show by any means. There's a lot of people here that pour everything we can into it. I know it's going to show up, and it has in flashes. I think there's no doubt that, in flashes, there are some things to be excited about. But the cold reality: This is not an 'every once in awhile' business. This is an everyday business. And to be good here and to succeed the way we want to succeed, we can't do it once in awhile. We have to do it every day, and that's what this business is about. That's the challenge that's in front of us.

Stumpf: I want to build off of the 'flashes' part of that. There have been moments for individual players, the whole team where you guys go maybe 6 for 10 with runners in scoring position, you hang a couple crooked numbers and it's a really good night, and then it's followed with a tough performance, three or four hits. What can be done — outside of the obvious of saying, 'oh, it's baseball — to make a more consistent approach. Is there anything more than getting these guys more reps in the major-league game?

Haines: Of course. What we're speaking about, if you pay attention to history, which is important — every young player in the big leagues, there's some volatility at the start of their career. That's especially true right now in the game with hitting. I think pitching has, in the last three or four years, has accelerated at an alarming rate. Run prevention, in general. Defense, the sophistication of it. That's on us, on the offensive side, to do everything we can to support these players and coach them. A lot of coaching sometimes is just hunting the good stuff, supporting them and believing in them, because the nature of the offensive game, there's so much failure to get to success.

Overall, for young offensive players, there's a lot of volatility. That means there's flashes, there's ups and downs, and the one common theme of the ones that are successful, they come out better on the other side of it. I'm looking at Kyle Schwarber right now. [Note: Schwarber was taking batting practice with the Phillies.] When I was an assistant with Chicago, I remember he had to go back down for a while. It was volatile, but he showed it in flashes and you knew it was there. Then with us, if you put that many of that particular type of player in the lineup, you're going to see what we've seen.

By no means is that an excuse. By no means do we accept it. I always say, 'We have to put on a good show every night, man.' People are paying good money for this, and we're not oblivious to that. We talk about it and we prioritize it. I take a lot of pride in that, that no matter what happens let's put a good show on. Last night [Friday] was a good example. In baseball, you have to overcome a lot of bad moments to get to success. Last night was the epitome of that. I don't know if we could have played worse the first two innings than we did last night. For our guys to overcome that, and we had a chance, we had them on the ropes there. We had a chance to come back in that ball game. I'm not giving us a consolation prize, but I'm saying those are the things that we can do and still put on a good show for the crowd. Our job's to get better. We have one more better at-bat and we're the team that comes out on the other side of this."

Stumpf: This is something that's come up a couple times in what I've written. You guys are last in baseball in swing percentage. How often you swing, how often you swing in the zone. I understand this is a very black-and-white question here, and it's not swinging for the sake of swinging, but would you like to see these guys swing more?

[Note: According to Baseball Savant, entering play Sunday the Pirates ranked last in baseball with a 63.8% swing rate on pitches located in the strike zone, though they have moved up to 26th in swing percentage in general at 45.7%.]

Haines: That's difficult to say because every player can get to their success differently. You look at Daniel Vogelbach, he's one of the most impressive offensive players I've been around, as far as navigating an at-bat. He gets attention from every team. Every pitcher and catcher are like, 'Man, what a tough at-bat.' His swing rate's very low.

Overall, it's certainly not something that I'm preaching. My preference is I want action. I want guys being aggressive. I think the game overall, we need more contact in the game. I'm still a fan of the game. I like action in the game. I'm not a three true-outcome [home run, strikeout, walk] guy. I'm still a purist and fan of the game at heart. I am. But I think I'm very sensitive to the fact it needs to be catered to each individual guy.

The other thing is we're not at the mercy of dictating the action. I think over a large sample, it certainly will show a trend, but you're going to have nights where a guy's not throwing the ball in the zone, so we can't be in swing mode. If a guy's challenging us, in the big leagues, if it's in your hitting zone over the heart of the plate, we have to be doing damage on those pitches, because you just don't get as many of them as you do in the other levels of baseball. I think that part's really important.

But if I give you a little glimpse of our process overall, we really want to match our swing rates with guys' damage zones and play to their strengths. If you can match those two up, it's a simple math equation over a larger sample that's going to happen. If we can get them to swing more in areas where that's their strength and they can do damage. I think that's a pretty good formula for success over the larger sample of what a major-league season is. That's what we spend a lot of time on. We have a lot of people working really hard at it.

Most importantly, the players up here -- I'm careful to say this because I don't think it's fair to say to fans how hard we're working [because] that should be a given at this level -- I feel confident that our guys are fully committed, and they have a great support system around them. A lot of the heavy lifting was done before I got here. I'm not saying I put all this stuff in place. I certainly want to be a leader in that department, but we have a lot of good people giving our guys good information. Our guys are taking it. The hardest, most excruciating part of it is the time it takes for it to show up sometimes in baseball. Believe me, it's excruciating. It may be even harder when we see it in flashes because we know we can do it. And then if it doesn't show up for awhile, it probably makes it more difficult because it wasn't right now and we know we can do it. It's our job to accelerate this process. Nobody wants to wait around.

Stumpf: I want to keep this mainly big picture, but just focusing on Oneil for a second here, because when we talk about how often he swings, and he's talked about how 'I take a pitch that I probably should take, but it's a strike.' He's also an example of a hitter that he can swing his way out of a slump, it seems like. We saw it in Triple-A too. Just some hard contact, and what we saw the last homestand with the 122 mph hit. That can maybe be the start of something.

When you have these young guys, is there a sense of passivity that you have to beat out of them? Be selective, but you also have to be aggressive?

[Note: FanGraphs tracked Cruz at a 43.6% entering Sunday. He talked more about his aggressiveness here.]

Haines: The term you just used is used a lot throughout baseball. 'Selective but aggressive' is used a lot throughout the industry. We really want guys in swing mode and to trust they're the best in the world. I think anytime you get caught in-between, that's what spooks me as a coach and makes me cringe. Guys need to be aggressive, 'yes, yes, yes, and no' approach.

A guy like Oneil, especially, is going to learn more initially the more he swings. He's going to get more feedback swinging the bat. On stuff he can handle, stuff he can't, stuff he chases, and all of the above. That's how Oneil's going to get feedback, and we want him to trust his talent, his God-given talent. It's special. We want to turn him loose. We'd much rather rein him back than being too aggressive. This guy is special, we all see it. With him in particular, it's super important for him to stay on the aggressive side because he is so dangerous. And the fact that these at-bats that we can give Oneil right now are so valuable because on a contending team right now, some of these guys aren't afforded these at-bats. Our goal for Oneil is to make sure he uses these at-bats to accelerate that development, and that going forward he looks back and this is the most he learns in his career, from these at-bats. The game sends you messages every night. A guy like Oneil, he can out-talent in the minor leagues. You cannot out-talent in the major leagues.

Stumpf: This is probably the first time he's been in a position where he isn't the only guy who was a top-20 prospect.

Haines: Yes. Just the sophistication of the game. The stuff that he sees. And then the amount of respect they show him as a young player. Every time he comes up, I see a lefty get up in the 'pen. I see the catcher know he's coming up. He's feared, and with that he gets pitched a little more carefully than most young players. That's a tribute to him. To my point earlier, I think the most important thing for Oneil is these moments he's going through gives him a chance to really accelerate his development, and he can use these tools to his advantage going forward because he's learning so much.

Stumpf: When you have a month-plus left in the season, I don't want to suggest, 'Does it add more urgency,' because there's urgency in every single game. But if a couple guys have a really good month in September -- maybe they're in Indianapolis -- that could be viewed as a big stepping stone for 2023 and beyond. Is there a heightened sense of urgency in this final month-plus to have a couple guys click. To show something tangible to hang on to.

Haines: I would probably say, in my words, taking advantage of opportunities. I think that's critical of everything we do, but especially as fleeting as what the major leagues are, for our players, it's so advantageous to take advantage of opportunity. Something I've just naturally learned through just my time in the game is I try to foster an environment where guys understand you need the length of the season, you want time, to help them, because you are doing the right things daily. The more time you buy, that's going to benefit you. It's not football, man. You can't run the clock out. It's going to keep coming at you, and you've got to keep improving. Whether it's a team or an individual player, the length of those seasons helps those guys. They get better as the season goes on. They keep compiling their numbers. If you don't have that mindset and become stagnant, the length of the season hurts you. That's what you get out of baseball. Time is a big part of getting numbers in your favor. It's a percentage game. Trying to get numbers in your favor, time is some big part of that. It's the one thing I try to foster with our players: Let's use this time to our advantage. Let's keep doing the right things. Time's on your side and things will play out right in the end.

Stumpf: One more for you. You know what this business can be like and that when a team isn't clicking offensively, your name is going to be brought up. Do you hear those calls? Do you prefer that? 'Yeah, go after me, don't go after the rookies?' How do you handle when that comes up?

Haines: Yeah. Well, if I can rewind that back for you, Alex, I remember when I was an assistant with the Cubs. I remember Chili Davis telling me, 'Hey, you know when you get one of these jobs what you sign up for, right?' I kind of blew it off because I didn't know what he was talking about. When the Brewers hired me as the main hitting coach there, another friend of mine said, 'Hey, you might not be able to go on Twitter again.' I laughed it off again.

One thing that helps me with that, Alex, is I'm so invested in our season that I call it 'underwater.' This isn't a job, man. This is your life. I don't expect extra-credit for that. I think every one of my peers does the job the same way. I honestly don't have enough time or energy to come up from underwater, to come up and see what's going on, if people are pummeling me or not. My family will send me some things, say 'This guy's not very pleasant towards you.' That's part of it. I'm in the major leagues. I'm so grateful for that. If it were to come up where I had a day where that is bothering me, I'll just say, 'Hey, I dreamed about having these problems a lot of nights in Red Roof Inns.' If that's the worst thing that happens to me, I think I'll still be pretty grateful.

I take the responsibility seriously. I know when I took this job, I knew the challenge in front of me. I knew it wasn't going to happen quickly. But I also know the pressure. I think it's attractive to tell fans, 'Oh yeah, give us this amount of time.' For me, the focus is on the game tonight. I told you, I really do believe our job is to put a good show on every single night. I won't apologize and say we're not doing that right now, because I know what we're pouring into every night, and at the end of the year, it's not going to look pretty. We know that — the final record.

I knew when I came here what was being done under the surface, I believed in it, and I have to continue to believe in that. Hopefully, I can be a small asset to that moving forward. Quite frankly, people told me I was crazy. They're like, 'Andy, I don't know if you can win there. If that's the job you want.' I said, 'Well, you probably made me crazier because you made me want to take the job more,' because that's what I'm about, man. I'm not afraid of a challenge. I believe in the people here. I believe in our players. That's what keeps me going every day, inspired to prove people wrong and bring a championship to Pittsburgh. That's what keeps us all going every day. 

MORE FROM THE GAME

• There's a reason why people are tuning in for "Ro Day."

Roansy Contreras was terrific, striking out seven over five shutout frames. While he did get into a couple jams in the second and fourth, he escaped unscathed.

After loading the bases in the fourth, he finished his afternoon with arguably his best frame, retiring the top of the Phillies' lineup in order.

"He came right back out and got the heart of one of the better orders in the National League, which was really important," Shelton said. "He was really efficient there. That was huge for him. We talk about moments where guys move forward. That could be a moment where he moves forward."

His slider was working in particular, getting a dozen of his 17 whiffs with his breaking ball, consistently burying it and leaving very little over the heart of the plate:

"They made him work a little bit, but the slider helped him finish it," Shelton said.

• Hey, anyone remember this soundbite from Noah Syndergaard last season?

Anyway, he allowed all five runs and was chased in the sixth inning. A lot of that damage came via three Pirates triples, one by Cruz, Bryan Reynolds and Tucupita Marcano. Better yet for the Pirates, they were able to bring all three of those hitters home after their three-bagger.

"He throws a lot of strikes," Shelton said about how the team approached Syndergaard. "We were able to be aggressive. ... We went into it thinking we were going to be aggressive because we know he puts the ball on the plate a lot."

• Factoid of the game: This was the Pirates' first three-triple game since May 25, 2018.

• Postgame quote from Contreras: "I feel like this game is going to ignite something for the rest of the season."

• Robert Stephenson, who was claimed off waivers Saturday, joined the Pirates Sunday. JT Brubaker was placed on the paternity leave to make room on the 26-man roster.

• News via source: Jack Suwinski is rejoining the major-league team. More on that here.

• With the win, the Pirates improve to 48-79 on the season and 9-25 since the All-Star break. Their .378 winning percentage puts them on pace for a 61-101 record. They need to go at least 15-20 down the stretch to avoid a second straight 100-loss season.

THE ESSENTIALS

• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard

THE HIGHLIGHTS

THE INJURIES

• 15-day injured list: RHP David Bednar (low back), RHP Colin Holderman (right shoulder soreness), LHP Dillon Peters (left elbow inflammation)

• 60-day injured list: RHP Yerry De Los Santos (lat), OF Canaan Smith-Njigba (wrist), RHP Blake Cederlind (elbow), RHP Max Kranick (elbow), C Roberto Pérez (hamstring)

THE LINEUPS

Shelton's card:

1. Kevin Newman, SS
2. Bryan Reynolds, CF
3. Ben Gamel, DH
4. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
5. Oneil Cruz, SS
6. Bligh Madris, 1B
7. Greg Allen, RF
8. Tucupita Marcano, LF
9. Tyler Heineman, C

And for Rob Thompson's Phillies:

1. Kyle Schwarber, LF
2. Nick Castellanos, RF
3. Alec Bohm, 1B
4. Bryce Harper, DH
5. J.T. Realmuto, C
6. Jean Segura, 2B
7. Bryson Stott, SS
8. Matt Vierling, CF
9. Edmundo Sosa, 3B

THE SCHEDULE

The Pirates are heading to Milwaukee for the second leg of this road trip. The Pirates have yet to announce a starter to fill in for Brubaker Tuesday. The Brewers are sending out the defending Cy Young, Corbin Burnes (9-6, 2.84). DK will have you covered.

THE CONTENT

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